Submerged
by Myan Mirage
Summary: Sequel to The Light. Illnesses, visions, weird dreams, and a new friend make the second half of Takuya's year more exciting than the first. Can't a kid get a break once in awhile?
1. Chapter 1

W00t W00t! It has finally arrived! After finishing The Light only last month, I've finally posted the first chapter of the long awaited sequel - well not that long awaited - Submerged! Please enjoy! W00t!

* * *

I sighed as I stared at the contents on my plate. I poked at them with disinterest and an underlying sense of disgust. It's now February, a month after holiday break, two months after I finished with the dolls and gave Bella her new body. It has almost been two months since the Prewett twins and the Founders were given their new bodies. It has also been that long since Gabrielle and I bonded. She is currently attending Beauxbaton against her will with my other four "specially" created dolls. The other heirs and I returned to Hogwarts under the guises of our previous forms, accompanied by Luna Lovegood, Blaise Zabini, Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, Su Li, and Padma and Parvati Patil. Sirius and Remus remained in Greece with Narcissa, Andromeda, and Bellatrix Black. The newly "revived" Lily and James Potter, along with the Prewett twins had left Greece to settle my estate in Rome, readying it for the time when we would have to use it as headquarters. The Founders had left Greece as well to settle my estate in Moscow. Bill and Charles had returned to their jobs. Charles returned to Romania while Bill returned to Gringotts with Fleur. All in all, it has been a month since the group had decided to spread out. At the same time, it's been a month since my body decided to rebel against me.

Truth be told, it actually started at the beginning of February. That was when the real issues started. Last month, my body was just a little sluggish. Narcissa had told me that it was probably because I'd been overworking myself. My magic was weak from being used so consistently. She advised me to stop using my magic as often. I, in turn, stopped using magic completely. The sluggishness faded away. At the beginning of February, though, that's when my digestive system decided to fight me.

I poked at the piece of baked chicken on my plate. I shuddered at the sight of the fatty juices dripping from it. My stomach did a cartwheel, and for the first time since it decided to rebel against me, I was certain that for this meal, I'd be in need of a bucket. All of my senses were on the same side of my stomach. It made me sick to see the grease drip from the chicken. My stomach churned at the smell of the fat that arose from it. The sound of everyone else chewing it was making me nauseous. I was certain that the taste of the fatty, heart clogging meat would send me running straight for the toilets. Not to mention feeling it would make me want to puke _on _it.

"Harry, are you okay?" Ron questioned as I pushed the meat to the opposite side of the plate and began to question my mashed potatoes. When my stomach churned in response, I set my fork down. I wasn't even going to _think _about trying the peas.

"I'm not hungry," I lied. It was an obvious lie. It was a lie that I've said for the past two weeks, three times a day, every day. It was a lie that he knew was a lie. That didn't mean I was going to stop lying. An alpha wolf doesn't admit to illness. I certainly wasn't going to be the first to admit something was wrong with me. Well, I wasn't going to admit it aloud, anyway. I knew something was wrong. So did the rest of them. I wasn't going to say it, though.

Ron frowned, but didn't comment. God, he's been doing that since the start of the month. I say I'm not hungry, and he frowns and goes quiet. I turned back to my plate. I picked up my fork again. I was going to take a bite. Just one bite. Maybe I was just hungry. Maybe that was why I was so nauseous. I stabbed the fork into my chicken leg. I watched in disgust as a mixture of chicken broth, grease, and fat bubbled out of the little holes and oozed down the white meat. My fork left my hand and before I really realized what was happening, I was running from the Gryffindor table and out of the Great Hall in search of a bathroom or bucket.

I came upon the former first. Bursting into a stall, I proceeded to vomit everything I'd managed to get down that day. It wasn't much. Because of my defiant stomach, I hadn't eaten much of anything for the past month. Everything I looked at seemed so…disgusting. I could barely eat bread. Even then, it tasted like what I assumed cardboard would taste like. Everything was just so inedible to me for some mysterious reason. Meat looked fatty and disgusting. Vegetable were even less appealing. Fruits… The thought of eating an apple sent me retching into the toilet again. The only thing my stomach didn't fight against was milk. It did a gymnastics routine if I ate anything else dairy, but milk settled my stomach. It was a mystery why. What was wrong with me?

I spat into the toilet, bracing myself with my hands against walls of the stall. My stomach rolled again. I groaned, wanting the nausea to go away. My stomach lurched, and I found myself once more vomiting into the toilet. In the process, I dropped to my knees, clutching the sides of the toilet as I braced myself for even more vomiting.

Once my stomach had emptied itself, I collapsed against the stall door, closing my eyes against the magical lights that kept the room bright. All of my energy was gone, though there was little in the first place. Since I couldn't eat, my body couldn't produce the energy I needed to make it through the day. I was certain that by now I was running on the magic from my cores. It would be awhile before my body began to eat itself. I could only hope that that never happened.

I jumped when I heard knocking at my stall door. Slowly getting my feet, I flushed the toilet, and unlocked my stall door. I was surprised to find Blaise at the door. His deep brown eyes raked over my features. I watched him as he examined me. I tried to watch him, anyway. My vision began to blur after a moment. Already weak, my knees gave out beneath me, and I tumbled to the floor. I expected to feel the cold stone flooring beneath. Instead, I met with the feeling on smooth cloth. I opened my eyes and found myself looking up into brown ones. I closed them again.

"You're sick," Blaise said, his deep voice penetrating the silence. When I neglected to respond, I felt him place his cool hand on my forehead. "You have a fever. Do you want me to take you to Madam Pomfrey?" I shook my head. "How long have you been feeling like this?" Once again, I completely ignored the questioned. I just wanted to lay there in silence.

Wait; was my head on his lap?

I pondered in silence. The answer was simple. I didn't care.

Blaise sighed. "I can't help you if you won't let me," he stated calmly. He was silent. I thanked him quietly. I just wanted to let the sound of his heartbeat lull me to sleep. "Harry, we need to leave soon. Dinner is almost over." He just had to ruin it.

I opened my eyes and stared up at him. Blinking owlishly, I let him help me sit up before using the door of a stall to lift myself to my feet. On my way up, the stall door moved, throwing me off balance. A pair of hands caught my waist. I threw a glare over my shoulder at Blaise as he helped me up.

"You need to see the healer," was his only response. He wasn't even frightened, though, I could understand why not. Harry Potter wasn't exactly one of the scariest people in the world. Hell, even a glare seemed misplace on his face. I'm certain that if I'd looked like myself, Blaise would have backed up.

On my feet, Blaise helped me to the door before releasing me. We still had appearances to keep up. I left the bathroom and made my way upstairs to my dorms. I needed rest badly. My body seemed to agree with me. Though I was weak, tired, and miserable, my body didn't give out on me until I'd reached my bed. I flopped down onto it and sighed at the softness of the magicked mattress. I buried my face into my pillow. It was heaven.

"Takuya?" I groaned. Why did Ron have to call me now? Every time! Every time! They always disturb my silence. Why couldn't they just leave me to suffer in peace? Mumbling obscenities under my breath, I rolled onto my side and glared at the offending disturber. Ron arched an eyebrow in question at my glare. I just glared back in response. Seeing that he wasn't going to get me to talk, Ron sighed.

"T…" He cut off when our other roommates entered the dorm. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?" he snapped instead. My glare sharpened. "You can glare at me all you want, mate, but I'm not going to stop bothering you! Not until you go to Madam Pomfrey."

I sat up, a mistake as my stomach lurched. I managed to ignore it, but just barely. "Who are you? Hermione?" I snapped. "If I wanted someone to nag me about my health, I would have just gone to her! I'm fine!"

"No, you're not!" Ron shouted. "It's all around the school now! The Great Harry Potter is sick! From the stomach flu or food poisoning, no one knows! Partially because he won't tell us!"

"That's because I'm fine!" I growled. Ron narrowed his eyes at me. I could feel everyone else's gaze on us. What were we? Their nighttime theater show or something? I ignored them, just like I ignored my volatile stomach and focused on what was going on between Ron and I. I was sick and tired – literally – of everyone asking me if I was all right. For the most part, I was fine!

"If you were 'fine' as you have stated it," Ron said slowly, "then why did you run out of the Hall during dinner?" I glared at him. Neglecting to answer proved his point. "Exactly! You're not fine! You're sick! Go to Madam Pomfrey!"

"I don't _need _to go to anyone!" I snapped back. My stomach clenched. All of this shouting was making me feel even worse. Ron's narrowed eyes slowly went wide as he noticed the changes in my facial expression. They were subtle, but they were enough for him to look at me with concern.

He was about to say something when the low whisper of "Lover's quarrel" hit my ears. Ron's glare came back full force. We both locked onto the offending voice immediately, despite all of the whispering going on around us.

"Fuck you, Dean!" we snapped simultaneously. Dean took a step back, surprised to have been drawn out of the crowd immediately after he made the comment. The confusion was evident on his face. I could practically hear his thoughts. How did we pick his voice out of the line-up of other whispers? If only he knew.

My stomach lurched again. This time, I gagged openly, regaining Ron's attention. I found myself being dragged from the dorm to the adjoining bathroom, where I proceeded to throw up what little stomach contents I had. I faintly heard something click before Ron was standing behind me, rubbing circles into my back. Soothing, yes, but not for my ragged stomach.

After a few minutes, my stomach settled enough to stop sending stomach acid back up. Spitting into the toilet, I collapsed to my knees. My energy had just been zapped from me. For the second time that evening, I felt a hand on my forehead. I could resist pressing against it. Heat was suddenly searing through me, and the hand was so cool against my head.

"You have a fever," Ron whispered. I sighed. I knew what was coming next. "You need to go see Madam Pomfrey."

"You're the second person to tell me I have a fever," I told him, smiling softly. He was silent for a moment. I must have caught him off guard.

"Who was the first?" he questioned. I smiled.

"Blaise. I didn't even know he cared." I giggled softly to myself. Wait. I _giggled_? Okay, what was wrong me?

I suddenly found myself facing Ron, who was looking at me as though I were crazy. I giggled again. "You were pretty cute as Ron," I discovered myself saying. "A little gangly, but cute. Then again, you're pretty hot as Ace, too." Ron's eyes widened for a moment. I saw understanding flood his eyes.

"You're delusional," he mumbled. I pouted.

"Just because I think you're cute either way doesn't mean that I'm delusional," I remarked, hurt. That passed quickly. "Charlie is kind of hot, too. I'd do him. Bill, too. Blaise is hot, too, in his own little cold way. Su's pretty, too. She's much prettier than Cho. I don't know why I was ignoring her. She deserves my attention. I think I love her." I paused in my babbling. "You're right. I am delusional." My thoughtful moment passed just as quickly as my hurt moment. "But I really do like Su. She's my favorite out of the girls. She's right up there with Luna."

"Harry, I think we need to get you to the nurse," Ron said, wrapping an arm around my waist. I let out a whoop when he managed to get me onto my feet. I stumbled, falling against his chest. I giggled, snuggling my face into his shirt.

"You smell _really _good," I slurred, giggling against his chest like a drunken schoolgirl. "You know, I would definitely marry you one day. Who would be the bride, and who would be the groom?" I shook my head. "Doesn't matter. Would it be possible to have a harem? The girls in the group are hot. I can't choose just one. Well, so are the guys. Are you listening to me?" I looked up at Ron. "What's so funny?" He was smiling to himself, amused by something.

"I'm listening to you, Harry," Ron said as he maneuvered me towards the bathroom door. "Nothing's funny. I'm definitely not laughing." He turned the lock, which emitted a clicking sound.

"That's what made that noise," I breathed. I then remembered something. Pouting, I looked up at him. "You're lying. You're laughing. What's funny?" Ron shook his head.

"Nothing's funny, really," he responded as he led me into the dorm, through the common room, and out of the tower. "Let's just go to Madam Pomfrey. She will tell us what's wrong with you." I pouted as he led me by hand towards the medical wing of the castle.

"But I don't want her to cure me," I whined. "She'll tell Dumbledore, who'll find some way to come here and see me. I haven't even learned…" Ron clamped his hand over my mouth, silencing me.

"Shut up!" he hissed as he dragged me into Madam Pomfrey's ward. The healer looked up at us from her desk.

"Can I help you?" she questioned, standing and walking towards us. Ron pointed to me, and the experienced healer focused solely on me. "What's wrong with you now, Mr. Potter? I was certain that after all of the times you've been in my ward, you would have finally learned your lesson and tried to prevent ever coming back." Stupid old witch. It was as though she thought that I do this on purpose. I wanted so much to tell her off, but Ron's hand was still covering my mouth. I was too tired to move my arms.

"He's been sick for awhile now, Madam," Ron said. The healer nodded, running her eyes over me.

"Place him on one of the beds," she ordered. Ron ushered me to a bed. He released his hand from my mouth once I was lying comfortably down. I glared at him, but made no comment. Madam Pomfrey came over and began inspecting me.

"When did you first start feeling sick, Mr. Potter?" she questioned. I was tempted to remain silent, but Ron was glaring at me. I glared back but decided to respond, anyway.

"Since last month," I told her. She nodded, continuing to examine me.

"What are your symptoms?" she questioned.

"Last month I was just tired all of the time," I replied. "Sluggish, really. This month, I've been fighting nausea. I only started vomiting just tonight."

"He also has a fever, which is new, too," Ron reported. Ignoring the glare I was sending him, he continued. "He also hasn't eaten since last month." Pomfrey looked from him to me.

"So loss of appetite as well, hm?" she questioned. I shook my head. "Then why haven't you been eating, Mr. Potter?"

"The food is _disgusting_." I didn't know I could put that much venom into the word disgusting. Both Pomfrey and Ron took a step back as soon as I had said that. "The chicken is full of grease and fat. The vegetables are bland and dry. The bread taste like cardboard. The fruit…" I gagged. "It's all so _disgusting_!" Ron and Madame Pomfrey stared at me, eyes wide.

I sighed, lying back on the pillow I was propped against as Ron and Madame Pomfrey stared at me in obvious shock. After a moment of silence, Madame Pomfrey left the room, leaving Ron with me. He was the one who broke the silence.

"Something is wrong," he said, staring at me, utterly amazed. "Who could _hate _Hogwarts food?"

"Fleur," I responded. "She says that it's fattening and has too many calories and is high in cholesterol. I agree. The food is so… _greasy._ How can you stand to eat that heart clogging food?"

Ron stared at me for a good long minute before saying, "I think Cissie and the others might be much more of a help than Pomfrey. I don't think that this is natural." I frowned and closed my eyes. My delirium had disappeared, though I was certain it would return eventually. I was exhausted now. The only thing I could think of was sleep.

I don't know when I gained the ability but being able to sleep in the oddest conditions, whenever I wanted, was the nicest ability ever. So, I took advantage of it. Good night.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, another short chapter. Who cares. At least I posted. Anyway, I read all of my reviews, and I would just like to say that to all of you who tried to guess why my little Taku is sick... you're all wrong! Muwahahaha! I had this planned out from the start. You can all keep guessing if you want. I'm not going to reveal what's wrong with him until like chapter five. I'm evil like that. Enjoy!

* * *

Madam Pomfrey kept me in the medical ward for most of the week. It was mostly to run tests. She was just as curious as to what was wrong with me as the others. Ron had contacted Narcissa and her sisters. They would be researching my mysterious illness as well. Gideon and Fabian were helping as well. The reborn twins had been instated under the title D.W. Healers. They were being trained in combat, too, but Rowena and Helga were both training them to be healers since they had such an affinity towards healing magic. Lily was helping, too. She'd always been interested in healing as well. So pretty much all of the group's healers were setting out to uncover what was wrong with me. I loved and hated them for this. I mostly hated them.

"I'm fine, Ron," I growled as Ron and I walked towards Divination. "Ask me one more time, and _you're _the one who is going to need to see Pomfrey." Ron stopped walking as to put a little distance between us. That was a smart move on his part.

"I'm sorry if I've been asking you that a lot lately," he began, but I cut him off.

"You've been asking me that for two months, Ronald," I hissed. "I'd been extremely grateful if you would stop! I'm okay! There are no new symptoms! I don't have a headache. Yes, my stomach is churning like a blender, but I can handle it. No, I don't have a fever. I'm fine!" I went back to walking, clutching the books in my arms to my chest. Lunch had just ended, and I'd spent the entire period – if you could call it that – in the library. The very thought of food made my stomach clench. Not wanting to spend it in the dorms, I'd decided to go to the library and read some books.

Halfway down the hall, I heard someone – most likely Ron – run up behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I found my suspicion correct. Though, I hadn't guessed the confused look on his face. What was he confused about?

"Harry, what's a blender?" Ron questioned. I stopped in my tracks and let out a deep sigh.

"Sweet Merlin, are you serious?" I inquired. "You're such a pureblood," I told him, shaking my head. I kept walking.

"Wait! You never answered my question!"

In Trelawney's classroom, I settled myself at one of the back tables. Ron was still mumbling about my never answering his question. I told him that I'd tell him later, which settled him enough to stop grumbling. Trelawney set us to going through our dream journals. Once we began, she turned her attention completely on me.

"Mr. Potter, what do your dreams happen to be telling you?" she questioned me in her fake dreamy voice. I opened my journal and turned to the page for last night. Like the pages before, the only thing written on it was the word _darkness._

"What does it mean when you dream about the dark?" I questioned. I watched as her expression went blank. I'd stumped her. After a minute, her facial expression changed to one that seemed very misplaced on her face.

"Mr. Potter, I would advise you to take your assignments seriously," she reprimanded.

"What makes you think that I'm not taking this seriously?" I questioned. "This is really what I've been dreaming about for the past two week. It's not my fault you can't come up with any crock about what it could mean." Trelawney took a step back. She looked like I'd just insulted her mother or something.

I thought she was going to lecture me about how Divination was real and the importance of the art. Instead, she turned her back on me. "Please leave, Mr. Potter," she ordered. I arched an eyebrow before glancing at Ron. He shook his head in amusement. I just shrugged my shoulders in response.

Grabbing my books and my bag, I stood up. Upon doing so, my equilibrium was lost and the world began to spin just before it went dark. My vision didn't stay dark, though. In a burst of color, my vision was replaced.

* * *

_ A boy in his early teens ran down the dirt roads of a third world village. Several yards behind him, a large crowd of people were chasing after him. In their hands were pitchforks, knives, weird dagger-like objects, and rocks. Occasionally, someone from the mob would toss a rock in his direction, but it would always miss. The boy was agile and fast. He easily dodged their futile attempts to hurt him._

_ The boy hopped onto a vender's cart, climbing onto the roof. When he reached the top, he jumped again, this time, aiming for the roof of the building nearby. He made the jump. The boy was strong and had strong leg muscles. On the roof, he continued to run, leaving the mob behind. He had somewhere to be, and it had nothing to do with them._

_ The boy hopped from roof to roof, sometimes skipping buildings all together. He was using some weird power. It felt like magic, but was completely different. It was why he was able to leap to such heights. His control over it was shaky, but it was enough to get him from roof to roof without falling short. He didn't want to get in trouble with the villagers again._

_ His left cheek was bleeding, most likely from a thrown knife that hadn't been evaded properly. The cut ran through the three diagonal marks on his cheek. Both cheeks had them. They looked somewhat like whiskers. The boy didn't seem bothered by the cut. In fact, the wound already looked to be healing._

_ Jumping from the roof of his current building to the street below, the boy slowed his pace and began to walk towards a large tower. It was payday, and he needed to get his paycheck to pay for his rent. He'd be evicted without it._

_ Continuing towards the tower, the boy paused. He glanced around before looking directly at me. His cerulean blue eyes seemed to look directly into my soul. "Do I know you?" I didn't get the chance to answer. I was gone._

* * *

As my vision came back to me, I realized that someone was shaking me. I glared over at Ron who looked rather frantic. "Would you stop?" I hissed. He stared at me, shocked.

"What just happened to you?" he questioned, almost shouting. "One minute you're getting ready to leave, and the next, you've dropped into your seat again, staring into nothing!"

"Mr. Potter, would you care to explain what just happened?" Trelawney questioned, a smile gracing her features. "I do believe that you just had a vision." I stared at her. I'm certain that my facial expression clearly showed just how crazy I thought she was. Should I give her the satisfaction of being right for once, or should I just lie? How could I lie about something like that anyway?

Instead of doing either, I stood quickly and grabbed my books. "I think I should leave," I said abruptly before rushing from the classroom. I didn't stop when I heard Ron and Trelawney yelling after me. I slid down the ladder and rushed down the halls and stairs. I just needed to get away to think about what had just happened.

Who was that boy? Why did I suddenly see him? What was so important about him that I had a vision about him? Was that even a vision? My leg muscles and lungs were arguing against this claim. My legs were sore and stiff, as though I had been running, or in this case, jumping from roof to roof. But Ron said I'd just dropped in my seat and stared forward at nothing. Why was it that my muscles were stiff when I was doing nothing?

Before I knew it, I found myself at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. I stared for a moment. Why had I ended up here? Shrugging, I entered the Chamber and went into Gabriel's chambers. Throwing my stuff onto the couch, I headed for the kitchen. The clatter of dishes caused me to freeze and go into defense mode. Forgetting that I even owned a wand, I forced my magic to encase my hand in a light purple flame. Entering the kitchen slowly, I abruptly released the magic to stare at the "intruder."

"Salazar, why are you here?" Mercurial silver eyes looked up to meet mine, wide with surprise. Salazar Slytherin, currently residing in a body that looked to be around its early twenties, stared at me with a piece of lettuce stuck to his cheek. I rolled my eyes before pointing to my cheek. He got the message and removed the offending food from his cheek before grabbing a napkin.

"I'm here to look at my chambers," he responded slowly. I narrowed my eyes. He was trying to pick his words as carefully as possible. I hated being lied to, even though I did most of the lying.

"Okay," I replied. "And then you decided to make a sandwich?" Sal glared at me. Maybe if I was younger, I would have thought it scary, but I barely felt his glare. Sal turned from me to take another bite of his sandwich. I think it was ham, lettuce, turkey, and tomatoes on rye, but my senses were dulled in this form.

"I got hungry," he replied as swallowing. I shook my head and snatched the sandwich from his hands, taking a bite out of it even though my stomach was begging me not to do so. The mayonnaise tasted thick on my tongue. The lettuce was too watery and bland, and the bread tasted like cardboard. However, I was surprised when I found the ham and lettuce pleasant tasting. What was wrong with me?

Sal glared at me. "Can I have my lunch back?" I handed it to him.

"It's disgusting, anyway. Why are you really here?" Sal frowned before tossing the rest of the sandwich in the garbage. "Was that necessary?"

"Rowena and Helga couldn't find anything on your illness," he replied. "So they sent me to check on you myself." Salazar's ever critical eyes ran over my body. "You do look a little pale," he responded. "Do you have any idea what's wrong with you?" I snorted and leaned against the island.

"Nope," was my response. Salazar frowned.

"What are your symptoms?"

"Nausea, cold sweats, sometimes headaches, fatigue, and several other symptoms that revolve around lack of nutrition." Salazar sighed, leaning against the counter.

"So, in other words, you're starving and your body won't let you eat anything?" I nodded just as my stomach did a cartwheel and threatened to toss up the one bite of sandwich had managed to swallow. I grabbed my stomach and rushed for the bathroom with Salazar following behind me a few seconds later.

After successfully hacking up just barely digested food, which felt so horrible coming up that it made me even sick_er_, I sat back against the bathroom wall, all of my energy depleted. I watched Salazar through half opened eyes as he stooped down to pick me up. I closed my eyes when I found myself in his arms. I would have blushed if I weren't so cold. I was shaking, freezing. The Chamber wasn't known for being the warmest place in the school. In a desperate attempt for warmth, I snuggled against Salazar. I relished in the heat he gave off. Who would have thought a previously cold doll would give off so much heat?

I was disappointed when I found myself without heat and instead lying on a cold bed under several quilts which weren't doing anything for me. Seconds later, a cold compress was placed on my forehead. I guess I had a fever, then.

"Takuya, you really need to get better," Salazar told me. The bed sunk a little lower. He must have sat down. "We need a leader. You're a liability." I would have winced if I wasn't so cold. "You need to find out whatever it is that you have, and cure soon. We don't have time for illnesses. Worse, we don't want anyone to find out that our leader is pretty much out of commission."

"You say that like we have enemies," I whispered.

"_You _have enemies. Voldemort will jump at the chance to take you out now that you're weak. So hurry up and get better." The bed returned to normal, and the door clicked shut. I was left allow to suffer. I fell asleep soon after.

* * *

_ "Foolish child," a voice echoed throughout the darkness of my subconscious. Who had said that? They sounded familiar._

_ "Such a waste of talent and brilliance if he can't even take care of himself," a second voice stated with a large amount of disappointment. Who were these voices?_

_ "He is aware of us," a third voice stated. I shivered at the sinister undertone it carried._

_ "Yes, it seems he is," the second stated. "What are we to do? Shall we help him, or shall we allow him to figure this out on his own?" Help me? What are they going to help me with?_

_ "The boy is brilliant to a point," the third voice stated. "He has reached that point. If we do not wish to die, than we should help him."_

_ "But he will not die," the first voice stated. "He shall figure this out on his own."_

_ "We cannot allow him to continue like this," the second voice said. "The boy is brilliant, yes, but we cannot blame him for not understanding what is wrong with him. He wasn't raised properly. We should help him."_

_ "His body has already given him a proper hint as to the reason," the third voice said. "He shall have to figure the rest out on his own."_

_ "Is that fair?" the second voice questioned._

_ "It is the proper method," the first voice responded. "The boy shall figure out his own 'illness' on his own. Only he will be able to understand what is wrong with him."_

_ What was going on? Who were these people? They knew what was wrong with me and weren't going to help me? What did they mean my body had already given me a hint? I didn't understand. What did this illness have to do with my upbringing? I didn't understand._

_ A deep chuckling erupted from my subconscious. "Patience, boy," the first voice told me. "You shall understand soon enough."_

_ My mind cleared, and I began to dream again._


	3. Chapter 3

I picked at my breakfast, wondering why I'd bothered to show up for the meal. Oh yeah, the twins had dragged me down here. They were just as worried as the others. They were especially worried after what happened yesterday. My body still hurt from that. I must have used too much magical energy or something because when I went to envelop my hand with my magic, a sharp pain went through my cores before I passed out. As of this moment, I am unable to use magic. None whatsoever. In the end, I was sentenced to another week in prison, also referred to as medical ward. Warden Pomfrey performed every test known to man and wizard on my body, but was unable to provide an answer to the mystery that was my illness. I had only been released yesterday.

I picked at my food and glanced around the table, noting that most of the Gryffindors were several seat away from me, with the exception of Ron, his brothers, Neville, and Parvati. It reminded me of how when I'd returned to the dorms yesterday, I'd been accosted by a group of Gryffindors who claimed that I was faking just to get attention. This group was led by Seamus and Dean, of course. I responded the way I always did when such charges were placed against me. Of _course, _I was faking! I just wanted everyone's eyes on me! I just wanted everyone to glorify me, or in this case, I wanted everyone to feel sympathy for me, the poor sick Boy Who Lived. I wanted to call them all assholes, but my stomach decided that it was time to punish me for being a smart ass. I wasn't able to reach the bathroom through the mob of students, however, with a flash of bushy brown hair, a bucket was placed into my hands, and I proceeded to puke up anything that was in my stomach at the time. _That _got everyone off my case. It also got me quarantined in the extra apartment beside the Gryffindor dorms by McGonagall. She'd been prepared to send me back to Pomfrey, but was stopped by the twins who told her that I'd just been released by the woman.

I poked at the yellow yolk of the egg on my plate. The twins had thought that it would be cute to place the food on my plate to look like a face. I had two egg eyes, a muffin for a nose, and four bacon strips for the eyebrows and the mouth. Cute. I was currently trying to blind my breakfast face with the fork as I tried to pass the time until breakfast ended. The twins had made it clear that I wasn't going to be getting away from breakfast until I ate something.

Finally becoming annoyed with the lack of progress, Fred sighed before glaring at me. I waved it off, completely unconcerned by it. When I looked up again, his expression had changed to that of concern. Somewhat tired of seeing that expression on everyone's faces, I turned from him, only to notice that all of my other friends were worried, too. "What?" I questioned. "Why are you looking at me like that? I already told you that I couldn't eat this mess!" Ron frowned, looking rather uncomfortable.

"Harry, we've been talking," Ron said slowly, likely trying to choose his words as carefully as possible.

"And?" I questioned, my heart rate speeding up. God, I knew that this was going to happen sooner or later. With my health declining, I knew that the D.W. would want to replace me as leader until I'd gotten better. I'd been able to make all of the training sessions, but because of my lack of energy, I haven't been training them as I should have been. I really think Ron would make a good leader, too. He's so much more… buff than I am.

"And we were wondering if...maybe, just maybe you _were _doing this just for the attention." My heart stopped and the room grew so quiet that the sound of Parvati's fork hitting the floor seemed extremely loud. I stared at Ron, my eyes wide. It took me a minute to absorb what he had just said. It took me another full minute to realize that the entire room had heard him ask the question and was waiting for my response. They didn't have to wait much longer.

The first thing that happened was the fact that I started shaking. I was so angry at that instant that I was certain that if my magic wasn't already acting stupid, it would have gone berserk. The second thing that happened was the fact that all of the heat in my body suddenly disappeared. The third thing was that my breathing quickened. All of this led to one thing:

I stood up, grabbed my bag, and left the table. Never once did I look back. The sound of hushed whispers met my ears as I walked calmly down the aisle. Also, the sound of flesh hitting flesh hard, as well as several chosen swears, and splashing was heard as well. The final clear sound that I heard was the sound of the door slamming shut when I left the room.

I stood in the hallway, shaking with rage. I couldn't believe that my best friend had just asked me something like that. My _ex _best friend, that is. I didn't know whether to feel humiliated or just purely enraged. What was even worse was the fact that the others had talked about this before asking me. Not only that, but they asked me in a highly public place.

My heart throbbed in pain, and I took off on a dead run down the hall. I threw myself into a bathroom and into the first stall before puking up anything that was in my stomach. My head throbbed, and my throat burned, but I accepted the pain because it temporarily replaced the pain I felt in my very soul.

This was what betrayal felt like.

* * *

"Malfoy, what do you think you're doing?" Snape said, interrupting his own lecture as he stared down at Draco who was my partner for the class.

Draco looked up at the old Slytherin head and said innocently, "Standing, Professor." A soft titter went through the class. Snape cut it off quickly with a single glare to every student, including me. Like a previous glare, I simply brushed it off like a fly on my shoulder.

Having instilled as much fear as possible into the hearts of his students, Snape turned his gaze back onto Draco and I. With his gaze resting solely on me, Snape said to Draco, "Mr. Malfoy, would you like to repeat that?" I resisted the urge to snort and roll my eyes. He only gave his Slytherins a second chance. If it had been me, he would have taken off fifty points or so. Prejudice and racism at its finest.

Draco stood there for a moment, contemplating his next move when he answered, "I'm preparing my station, Professor. Did I do something wrong?" I loved how this boy could play innocent. He was probably pulling on his angelic heritage to pull it off.

Snape turned his gaze from me – finally – to Draco. "Is there a reason as to why you partnered with," he turned from Draco to look at me with obvious disdain and disgust, "Potter?"

Draco blinked, seemingly surprised by what his head of house had said. He looked at me, looked up at Snape, and back again. "I _did, _didn't I?" A hand shot to my face, and I sneezed to replace the laughter I wanted to let out. Snape eyed me with disdain out of the corner of his eye. I guess I was the annoying bug on his shoulder that just would not go away.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter," Snape said before finally turning his back to me and walking towards the board. "For today's lesson…" Class officially began.

I began to follow the first line of directions by diagonally cutting some wizarding plant. While in the midst of trying to ignore his presence and occupy myself with the task at hand, Draco suddenly said, "I told those idiots not ask you something like that."

Nearly cutting my finger off, I glanced over at Draco as inconspicuously as possible. "What the hell are you talking about?" I hissed as I dumped the cut plant into my cauldron, turning it a murky yellow. I read and reread the second line before continuing with my potion.

"We talked for nearly an hour the last day of your hospital stay," Draco whispered as he added some powder to his cauldron. A light blue plume of smoke rose from it. "The others agreed that you weren't faking, but I guess after hearing all of the talk, those idiots were beginning to doubt that, especially since you won't accept help unless forced."

I frowned as I stirred my potion. What the hell was I making, anyway? Looking down into my cauldron, my stomach did somersaults at the sight of the disgusting, tar smelling gunk. A large black bubble grew before exploding. I shivered before looking up at the directions again. Swallowing, I came to a simple realization. I was definitely _not _going to make through this class.

I noted Draco gazing at me out of the corner of my eye. I tried to ignore him and my stomach, but neither would let me. As I went to add the powder to my potion, the contents of my cauldron disappeared. I really didn't want to look up, but I did and found myself staring at a smug looking Snape.

"Mr. Potter, you are a prime example of inept student," he said, sneering. He kept talking, but I wasn't able to catch anything else he said as a sudden wave of smells assaulted my nose, upsetting my already delicate stomach. Before he could get very far in his speech, I gagged, gripping the edge of my cauldron tightly. Snape paused in his speech and narrowed his eyes.

"Mr. Potter, I will not tolerate such dramatics," he said, coldly. "Unlike the rest of the teachers and your peers, I will not fall for such a foolish act to get attention. Either you stop acting this instant, or I shall take you to Umbridge myself."

If only I was acting. My response to his threat was puking into my cauldron. I'd known that I wouldn't have made it through the entire class. Bless my heart that I'd made such a terrible potion, or my cauldron would not have been empty. I wonder what _that _would have been like.

My stomach churned, and I vomited again, only this time it came with a searing pain in my stomach. I stood over the cauldron, coughing as my stomach twisted inside my body painfully. What was wrong with me? By the pale pallor of my friend, I knew something serious was wrong with me.

"Professor, he just threw up blood!" Draco shouted, catching my attention. Blood? I'd vomited blood?

I laughed to myself, coming out a little deranged. "No wonder the room's spinning," I said before my knees gave out beneath me. Before I could hit my head on my cauldron, someone, probably Draco, caught me by the waist.

"Take him to Pomfrey," Snape ordered as the room span. I was getting dizzier by the moment.

"He can't go to Pomfrey," Ron's voice shouted from the back. "She specifically told him not to return to her office on fear of contamination."

"Then get his head of house!" Snape shouted. My feet were suddenly no longer on the ground. Like before, I found myself in someone's arms. The spinning room had been making me too dizzy, so I'd closed my eyes a long time ago. Why did this keep happening to me?

* * *

_ I found myself in a clearing somewhere in the forest. It wasn't the Forbidden Forest. The trees were too green and lush. Death didn't hang over the forest like a blanket that had yet to be removed. The air was fresh and clean. Flowers that I'd never seen before were in bloom, and everything was peaceful._

_ "You're back." I looked up to find the blonde boy from before standing over me. He gazed at me curiously, questioning whether I was real or if I were some figment of his imagination. I smiled wearily up at him. He reached out and placed a hand to my forehead. I basked in the heat that was emitted from it. The boy frowned. "You have a fever. You weren't looking too good the last time I saw you, though you were better than this. Are you sick or something? Is it contagious?" I wanted to laugh, but found myself too weak to summon a snort. The boy's facial expression contorted into that of worry. "God, you're deathly ill, isn't you?"_

_ I nodded and closed my eyes. I heard a sigh before he moved. With a grunt, he planted himself on the ground to my right. We sat in silence, relaxing underneath a large tree which gave us shade. I listened as the wind blew through the branches, rustling the leaves and sending them falling to the ground._

_ "The cherry blossoms are beautiful this time of year," the boy said, breaking the peaceful silence. I opened my eyes to find my person covered in pink cherry blossom petals. Weakly, I lifted my arm up with my palm facing the sky, wanting to catch one for myself. A pink petal floated down from the heavens and landed directly in the center of my palm. The boy chuckled._

_ "My sister once told me that that was good luck," he said. "Maybe it will cure you of your illness." I smile softly, staring at the petal in my hand._

_ "I don't even know what I have," I said weakly. "I don't know why I'm sick. I just am." The boy gazed at me with sympathy, saddened by this. He suddenly gave me a sad smile._

_ "I don't know you, and you don't know me, yet I know that we are very similar," he said. "I feel as though we can be best friends." He looked at me behind a short curtain of spiky blond hair. "Could we be friends?" I smiled at him._

_ "We already are," I told him. We shared a smile._

_ "Who are you?" he asked me._

_ "Takuya. Takuya Takahashi. Who are you?" He smiled brighter._

_ "Naruto. Naruto Namikaze." He grinned._

* * *

I opened my eyes to find myself staring up at white ceiling tile. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, hoping that _this _was the dream and the one I'd just experience was reality. When I finally realized I was awake, I burst into tears. It had been so _real. _Sure, I was sick even when I was dreaming, but I was at peace with myself and my illness. I was enjoying the cherry blossoms with that boy, Naruto, who seemed so much like me, but different. I felt so connected to him that it hurt knowing that I was awake.

"Takuya?" I turned my head to my left to find Su Li sitting beside my bed. Her face was etched with worry. I wanted to feel guilty, but I was too disheartened by my dream not being my reality that it kept me from feeling any guilt. I could still feel tears rolling down my cheeks.

I sat up before wincing midway through the action. My body was sore all over. Several muscles were sore, and some of my joints were stiff. Glancing down at my elbow, I found that the joint was slightly swollen. I felt as though I'd been in a fight.

I sighed softly before coughing as my throat burned. As I coughed, I felt someone, most likely Su, gently tap my back as he or she tried to help my clear my airways. Once the coughing fit subsided, I finally spoke. "Am I-" I cut off, coughing again. My throat was dry, causing my voice to sound hoarse and forced. A cup of water was thrust into my hands, and I gratefully downed the cup.

"Are you alright now?" Su questioned softly. I nodded, clearing my throat. I set the cup down on the table beside me and took a breath.

"Am I in the medical ward?" I questioned, wiping my eyes of the remaining tears. Su nodded. I sighed. I was back. Again. Pomfrey would kill me.

"We were really worried about you," Su said, bringing me from my minor depression. "You were out for about a week." I stared at her. A week? I was unconscious for a week? "The others came by to visit on several occasions, but Pomfrey put them out. She wasn't too happy with them about what they did." The shock wore off just in time for me to realize that Su had mentioned them with contempt. "I can't believe they did that."

"They're idiots," I mumbled. "Stupid, stupid fools."

"Should we kick them out of D.W?" I shook my head. Maybe I was being too compassionate, but I could never kick them out of Dire Wolf. I needed them. I hated them, but I still needed them. They still had their uses. That didn't mean I had to be friends with them, though.

The door to the ward opened. Su and I looked up to find that it was Draco. In his hands was a bouquet of multicolored peonies. I blinked as he walked over, smiling. "Wondering how I knew this was your favorite flower?" he questioned as he tossed out the roses that were sitting in the vase beside my bed to replace them with the peonies. I nodded. "Gabby told me." I smiled. I should have known that she would tell him. She had taken a liking to Draco/Gabe after bonding with me. "The red ones are from her. Blue is from me. Pink is from the Blacks. The white ones… They symbolize peace. They're from-"

"Those idiots," I finished for him. He nodded.

"Despite what they've done, Taku, you're going to have to forgive them soon," he said. Su scoffed.

"Why should he? They don't deserve forgiveness," she stated. "They doubted their leader just because the crowd was getting to them."

"No, that wasn't it," Draco said, defending them. Su glared at him. "Just let me explain before you decide to hurt me, Su." He turned to me. "Taku, they were confused. You wouldn't tell us anything. So one day after training, we were shooting suggestions at each other, different reasons. We narrowed it down to two. You were either doing it for attention because of some plan you had, or you were seriously ill and probably didn't even know how serious."

"Wait, there was more to the attention one?" I questioned. "They thought I was trying to get attention for some plan?" I paused. "It makes sense, though, if you think about it. Faking the illness would make people doubt me. They'd lose trust in me, and then anything serious that I'd say by mistake would be taken as me trying to get attention." Draco stared at me. "What?"

"Um, we never really got far enough to actually think out whatever plan we thought you'd formed," Draco said, laughing nervously. I shook my head.

"You have to think ahead, Drake," I told him. He smiled.

"That's why you're the boss." He paused. "But you will have to forgive them. Even you said it. Dire Wolf is different from the Death Eaters because we act like a pack. We can't be like a pack with something like this hanging between us. We're a family. We can't be a family if we have a big riff in between us."

"So why don't they apologize?" I questioned. Su snorted.

"They've tried, but you were unconscious, and Pomfrey wouldn't let them in _to _apologize," she responded. "Then again, I wasn't here to watch them get kicked out the first and last time. I was busy trying to keep the others from killing them." I snorted.

"So the girls didn't take it too well, huh?"

"Hell no," both of my visitors responded. Su sighed, and the atmosphere changed significantly. She gazed at me with her beautiful gray eyes and smiled softly. "I'm just happy you're alright, Taku."

"I think she means that she's just happy you're not dead," Draco said, jokingly. Both Su and I glared at him. "Hey, technically you're not alright. Pomfrey isn't removing you from her isolation room for a good week or so. You might just be in here for the rest of the year if your illness persists." Su sighed before nodding sadly.

"He's right, Takuya. Pomfrey said that if this keeps up, you might just…" She broke off, her eyes falling to the floor. Draco looked away, too. I knew what they were both unwilling to say. I was going to die. I already knew that, but somehow, hearing them try to say it made it seem so much realer. I was going to die.

We sat in silence, digesting this. Su Li cupped my hand in hers and placed it near her forehead, her head bowed. She began to mumble something in a different language. It was most likely Chinese. As she muttered away, she gripped my hand tighter. It was a moment more before I realized that she was praying. Glancing over at Draco, I caught the same look of realization in his eyes before he laced his fingers together, closed his eyes, and began to mumble is his own prayer.

Dear Merlin, I had never realized how dire this was. I was going to die, and I never realized it. Tears sprang into my eyes. I turned from my friends to stare the white covers on top of me. My life was going to end, and I hadn't even had a chance to do everything I had planned on doing. I would never finish my plans against Dumbledore, Voldemort, and the Ministry. I would never get to leave Britain and travel to Japan, my birthplace. Tears streamed down my face as I realized that I would never meet my birth family. I'd never meet my mother or my father. I would never find out if I have siblings or not.

There were so many things that I was never going to be able to do if I didn't fight this illness. I couldn't even fight it if I didn't know what it was. How can you cure the unknown? You can't. That's why you diagnose the problem first. If you can't find the diagnosis than you can cure the person. That's what I need. I needed a diagnosis, and not even one of the best healers could figure out what was wrong with me. And I was dying.

Dying.

Dying.

Dying.

The word just kept repeating itself in my head over and over and over again.

I was dying.

The statement I'd thought so many times in the last five minutes. I was dying. I was going to die Harry James Potter. People would only remember me as Harry James Potter. They would only remember me as the Boy Who Lived.

Dumbledore would be disheartened.

Voldemort would rejoice.

The public would cry over me for a minute before forgetting about me.

My friends… My free hand clenched the covers as a sob erupted from me. Su Li tightened her hold on my other hand. That only made me cry harder. I had such good, no, _great _friends. Right now, I didn't care about what Ace and the others did that morning in the cafeteria. I didn't care. I forgave them. I wanted to tell them that I forgave them to their faces so that I wouldn't die without telling them. I wanted to see Ace. I wanted him to hold. I wanted to Damen. I wanted to feel his arms around me. I wanted to feel how much they loved and cared for me. I wanted to tell Gelly that he was like a brother to me. He could have been the Boy Who Lived and not me, and I wanted to tell him that I was happy to take that burden from him because he didn't deserve it.

There was so much I wanted to do that I realized that I'd never really lived my life, and now I wasn't going to get a chance to do so. I was going to die. I won't be able to tell Sirius just how much I loved him. I won't be able to tell Remus just how much I loved him. I wasn't going to be able to tell Lily and James how great it was to finally meet them, and to tell them how much they meant to me. I wasn't going to be able to do a lot of things, and that just made the tears keep falling.

I'm certain that I was a mess as I sat in the bed, crying my heart out. Su had long since released my hand and had pulled me into her arms, allowing me to cry into her chest. Draco was rubbing my back, trying to comfort me, even though it was pointless. How do you comfort a dying man?

I went on crying my heart out for a good few minutes when two thoughts made me hysterical. The first was that I would never fall in love. It may sound girlish and feminine, but I had always wanted to find someone who would accept me for me. Someone who would understand when I wanted to be left alone or when I wanted to be held. Now, I would never get the chance to meet that person, and that thought alone almost made me hysterical. The second thought was a little worse, but broke my heart and made me freeze in mid-sob.

I was never going to meet Naruto in person now.

I was hysterical and inconsolable after that. Both Su and Draco tried to calm me down, but I could find no comfort. Death was nearly standing at my doorstep. I didn't want to be consoled. I wanted to cry and cry I did. Being consoled meant that I'd accepted my fate. I was never going to accept this. I wasn't going to go down without a fight, but it felt pointless to do so when it was inevitable. I was going to die at the age of eighteen, or fifteen since I was still under a glamour, and I would never know why.

I remained hysterical for a good hour before Pomfrey returned to find me in said state. Without question, the contents of some foreign potion bottle were forced down my throat. As I calmed down, I realized it was a calming draught. As I became drowsy, I realized that it was mixed with a sleeping draught. I was removed from Su Li's arms. Despite trying, I couldn't keep a grip on her. My muscles had gone lax. My vision was fading, so I couldn't see who it was that laid me on my back and brought the covers up to my neck.

Before I fell asleep, I let out a sorrowful whimper, tears still streaming down my face despite the draught. "Please don't leave me alone," I whimpered. "Please don't leave me alone." No one responded, and I heard the distinct click of the door shutting. I could almost hear the glass shattering as my heart broke into tiny pieces. They'd left me. They'd left me alone. My friends had left to suffer alone, even though I was going to sleep.

Before the sobbing could start afresh, a hand grabbed mine, and I relaxed. They hadn't left me after all. I closed my eyes and allowed the medication to carry me away. Before I fell asleep, the one holding my hand brought it up, and I felt what I could only describe as a soft kiss on the back before, "You're not the only one who can appear in places they shouldn't be, Takuya-san."

I could have sworn that sounded like Naruto.

* * *

Another chapter gone, and I am so proud of myself. Yes, this is a Naruto/Harry Potter crossover, however, its not like all of the other ones. It's not Harry goes to Konoha or Naruto goes to Britain. Its not Harry's a Ninja or Naruto is a wizard. I hate those. So I wanted to make one that met right in the middle. Trust me, you'll see. It's **way **better than the other crap I've read. I mean really! Naruto doing magic? That's absurd! Harry doing jutsus? That's actually kinda funny. Nah, I think I'll just keep them like this.


	4. Chapter 4

Hogwarts can't hold water. I mean that in both the literal and figurative way. The very next day after I found out I was dying and thought Naruto had held my hand – which I was positive he did – I heard shouting outside of my solitary room. I almost ruled it out as someone having gotten hurt doing something stupid. I would have if I hadn't heard Ace's voice clearly shout, "He's in the damn paper! He deserves to know this." At that point, I sat up in bed, wondering why he was here and what he was talking about. I was also kind of happy that he'd came because I wanted to tell him that he was forgiven.

I got my chance when the door to my room opened, and Ron entered, his face red with anger. His eyes were burning with rage. He looked positively livid. Well, he would have if he hadn't frozen once inside the room, staring at me. He seemed to remember what had happened the week before because his face changed from red with anger to red with embarrassment. I decided then to put him out of his misery.

"It is okay, Ron," I said, smiling softly. "I forgive you. I shouldn't have overreacted." Ron blinked, unable to comprehend what had just been said. Realizing that I'd forgiven him, he shook his head.

"No, it was my fault," he said as he walked over to the chair beside my desk. "I should have known better than to bring it up at breakfast. I pretty much ruined your day, huh?" I snorted.

"No, my illness ruined my day," I whispered. "And my life." We became quiet for a moment before Ron reached over and pulled me closer to him.

"You're not going to die, Taku," he whispered. "We won't let you. We're doing everything in our power to find out what's wrong with you. We're thinking of repeating what you did with Bellatrix." I shook my head.

"I don't want a doll body," I told him. "I know that they're the perfect bodies, but I still don't want one. Bella and the others… they won't ever be able to have kids because of their bodies. I want… I don't care that I'm going to die. I want to remain in my own flesh. The flesh I was born into. That's…that's my decision." Ron frowned before pressing his face into my neck. I shivered at the feeling of his hot breath on my skin.

"I'm sorry, Takuya," he whispered. "I'm so sorry." I felt something drop onto my neck before I realized that he was crying. "I'm so, so sorry that this is happening to you. You don't deserve this."

"No one deserves to die young," I whispered. Overnight, I'd built my walls. I wasn't going to cry anymore. I couldn't cry anymore. I was going to die. There was no point in crying over it. Just like there was no point in fighting it. In the end, the very thing I would be trying to postpone would just catch up with me.

I sighed. "What brought you here this morning?" I questioned. Ron removed himself from my neck and wiped his eyes. He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out the Daily Prophet. My heart fell into my stomach. "No." He frowned and nodded. "How? How?" I practically shouted this. Ron just shook his head. He unfolded the paper and placed onto my lap. The front page headline made me want to break down my walls and cry again.

**_The Boy-Who-Lived Dying_**

_By Rita Skeeter_

_ As of late, news has reached the Daily Prophet of the famous Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter's, declining health. From what our sources have told us, Harry James Potter has been suffering from a mysterious illness that seemed to have just appeared upon his return from the holidays. Could this possibly have something to do with his mysterious disappearance from the Black residence the day after Arthur Weasley's funeral? No one knows for sure._

_ Witnesses report noticing that young Potter had been feeling fatigued during the first month back. Once that month ended, it was then that they began to notice his odd eating habits._

_ "He just didn't eat," one witness claims. "He would sit there, pick at his food, and then leave the Great Hall. It was very odd."_

_ Mr. Potter continued this ritual only until the second week of February, where he was seen rushing from the Hall only to run into a bathroom. After this incident, witnesses tell us that he never went to any of the meals afterwards._

_ "Whenever breakfast, lunch, or dinner came around, Potter would just head for the library or to his house's tower," a witness claims. "We began to ignore it. After all, he was only doing it for the attention."_

_ Was the famed Boy-Who-Lived really pretending to be ill for attention? This question was asked just last week at breakfast by the boy's friend Ronald Weasley, son of the deceased Arthur Weasley. Mr. Potter just left the room, neglecting to respond. Several witnesses say that after Mr. Potter left, Ms. Parvati Patil slapped the young Weasley while Ms. Hermione Granger, Potter's ex-best friend, threw her drink onto him. The question of whether he was faking or not was never answered._

_ Later on that day, during one of his classes, Potions from what witnesses tell us, Mr. Potter vomited blood into his cauldron after it was emptied by Professor Severus Snape for having failed in making the required potion. He was then rushed from the room to the medical ward of Healer Poppy Pomfrey where he remained unconscious for a week. He awoke only yesterday to the horrible news that he was terminally ill._

_ Dear readers, have we truly been giving Mr. Potter the benefit of the doubt? Could he truly be dying, or is this just an elaborate hoax to get attention? Would someone really fake their own death to get such attention?_

I would have continued reading if Ron hadn't snatched the paper from me and returned it to his pocket. He was livid again. "How did they get all of that information? How does she do it? I'm certain that none of the students would talk to her. At least I hope none of the students talk to her. Could one of them have told her about what was going on?" I shrugged, emotionally numb.

"Skeeter has always found some way to get her story," I said. "How she does it is anyone's guess." Ron stared at me, somewhat surprised.

"Takuya, are you alright?" he questioned. I smiled at him.

"I'm fine," I told him. "Just a little tired." Ron frowned, narrowing his eyes.

"You're lying. I know you're lying. Takuya, I can always tell when you're lying. Please stop lying to me. Just tell me if you're alright." I turned from him to stare out the window beside me. Tears sprung into my eyes, and I cursed my luck. I wasn't as good at building walls as I thought. That, or Ron was just good at breaking them down.

"No, I'm not alright, Ron," I told him, shaking. "I'm dying. There is no way I could be alright." I turned to him. "There has been so much that I wanted to do, and now I won't even get the chance." Ron took my hand between his and brought it to his lips.

"Harry, please," he whispered. "You're not going to die."

"Yes, I am."

"No, you're not." He said this fiercely, determined that it was true. "You're not going to die. I won't let that happen. Stop thinking so negatively. Why have you already given up hope?"

"Because my magic is running so low that I won't last another week," I responded. "I'm dying. Like dying now."

"Shut up!" I flinched. Ron tightened his grip on my hand. I realized that he was shaking. "Stop saying that. Please. You're not going to die. There is too much that has been left undone for you to just give up and drop. We are going to try everything in our power to find out what's wrong with you. We're doing everything in our power. Hell, even Hermione has given up hating you and is helping us." He laughed dryly. "You know, she dumped water on me after I asked that question. I'd never seen her so angry. She tried to come in and talk to you, but you were unconscious. Before I came in here, she cornered me. She wanted to know if you were alright. I told her that I going to visit you, and that I would tell her when I returned. She was so worried."

"Maybe it's time we talked out our differences," I stated. Ron snorted.

"You're too damn reasonable for me," he said. "I would have just went on ignoring her. Why do you want her to be your friend again?"

"She shows potential that would have never been shown if I hadn't pissed her off and made her start hating me," I responded. "Too bad I won't ever help her reach that true potential."

"Stop talking like that," Ron scolded. I snorted.

"Ginny is another story, though," I continued. "She's too brash. She's uncontrollable. I could try to tame her, but if I ever wanted to have a good grip on her, I'd have to break her spirit, which I don't want to do." Ron nodded.

"The girl is a handful," he said. "Parvati told me, after she stopped ignoring my existence of course, that Ginny and Cho have kind of teamed up against you. The D.A. has changed. Hermione even noticed it. She left the group. Now that she's gone, the purpose of the group has changed significantly. They're more after getting back at you than they are about studying. Many people have left, but even more have joined. Even worse, Umbridge approves of their group."

"Perfect," I whispered. "If Umbridge is on their side, then they won't have to hide. Now they can train every day of the week."

"Exactly. We've been upping the ante, too, though it's been much more difficult. Someone tipped Umbridge off to our late night disappearances. Also, one of the more spiteful Slytherins told her about Draco not staying in his dorms. He has detention for a month and has to stay in his dorms at night because he's being watched by Snape now."

"Great. How did they get away with calling the group Dumbledore's Army?"

"They didn't. Before they went to ask for permission, they changed it to Dolores' Army."

I rolled my eyes. "To appeal to her major ego, huh?" Ron nodded. He sat back and sighed.

"I wish I could stay longer, Taku," he said softly. "But today is Thursday. Snape would kill me if I missed class." I smiled.

"Thanks for visiting, Ron. I really missed you." Ron smiled before leaning over and kissing me on the lips. I smiled. "I really smiled that, too." Ron stood back and grinned.

"Yeah, me too." He gave me another kiss good-bye. I was all alone again. I sat back in my bed and began to think. Umbridge was no fool. She knew that D.A. wasn't revolved around her image. She knew, or at the very least, assumed that they were training themselves to defeat me. She hated me, which was only natural after I almost turned her into a squib. I don't know how she did, but she managed to regain all of her magic back over the break. At least she wasn't replaced with some other Ministry official. They could have been worse.

I rubbed the back of my right hand where the words _Magic Stealer _were engraved into the skin of my glamour. The original scar had healed a long time ago. Disgust flooded me. What she was doing to the children as punishment was borderline abusive, if not so already. It was a wonder none of the other students complained about such abuse to their parents. I was not going to simply believe that their parents didn't care. That woman had to go, if not because she was a nuisance but because she was a child abuser.

I paused in my thoughts. Glancing around the edge of my bed, I reached over and grabbed my bag from the floor. I removed my journal and a mechanical pencil. Clicking the pencil, I began to write out my plan. The people of Wizarding Britain trusted the Ministry for many reasons. Whether it was to keep justice or to enforce knew laws or acts to help the people, the people trusted the Ministry. However, I was certain that their trust would be shattered if they found out that the Ministry official who was placed in charge of their children was abusing said children. They'd turn against the Ministry.

I paused in my planning before realizing that what I was planning wasn't going to work. The Ministry would feign ignorance if such a charge was brought up. I would need proof that the Ministry knew what Umbridge was doing. Not only that but I didn't hold much weight now that they thought I was doing all of this for the attention. I would have to plan it so that someone else revealed it to the people without it coming back to me. How was I supposed to plan that? I'd also need real hard evidence that Umbridge was behind this, and that it wasn't a prank. Maybe if I stole the quill from her… No, that wouldn't work. I would need to catch her red-handed. How was I going to do it?

"What are you thinking so hard about?" On reflex, I snapped my journal shut before looking up at my visitor. Gazing at me curiously was Hermione Granger. I blinked owlishly. When had she arrived?

Tossing my book and pencil back into my pack with practiced precision, I turned my attention back to her and smiled. "It's been awhile, Hermione," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. I was beginning to feel a little weary.

Hermione nodded and sat down in the chair beside me. "It has been awhile, Harry," she said. We lapsed into an awkward silence. After so long apart, what was there that we could talk about?

"Ron told me about what was happening to the D.A.," I told her, breaking the silence. "It's a shame. The group showed great potential." Hermione nodded sagely.

"Yes," she agreed. "The only problem was that Ginny was too consumed in her hatred for you to understand the true purpose of the group."

"She and Cho took over as leaders, yes?" Hermione nodded again.

"After you rejected Cho, she began her own personal vendetta against you. It was only a matter of time before she and Ginny met." She became quiet, lost in thought. "When I first started the Defense Association, I had planned on taking Ginny under my wing. I wanted to tame her. She was too high-strung, brash. She would let her emotions control her. That wasn't practical in a duel."

"However, you realized later on that taming Ginny was nigh impossible, yes?" I questioned. Hermione arched an eyebrow in question before nodding. "Yes, I realized that, too. Ginny had and still does have great potential to be a very fine duelist. However, she will never reach that potential unless she is able to reign in her emotions. She has the Weasley temper mixed with the Prewett temper. She's like her mother in more ways than one. She can't be tamed." Hermione nodded her agreement.

"She can, but you would have to break her spirit in the process. I don't have enough will to do something like that."

"So now, you're without a group to be a part of. It's a shame. Anyone who can train themselves to cast an elemental spell has a large amount of potential." Hermione snorted, smiling softly to herself.

"You remember that, huh?" she inquired. I shook my head before laughing at her astonished look.

"My mind was gone during that History lesson," I told her. "Ron had to tell me what happened. Binns is _so _boring." Hermione stared at me before bursting out laughing.

"He literally bored you out of your mind," she laughed. "Incredible." I chuckled to myself.

"What are you going to do now?" I questioned. Hermione stopped laughing and stared at me. "I mean about being in a group. Are you going to start another one?" She shook her head.

"It's too dangerous now," she responded. "Umbridge was told about another rebel group and has increased the patrol. Do you know anything about this rebel group?"

"It all depends. Would you join it?" Hermione shrugged.

"It all depends on who is leading it."

"I am." Hermione stared at me. "Or at least I was." Hermione smiled.

"I had a hunch it was you. Ginny and Cho think you have something to do with it, too. They want to challenge your group to a duel."

"They would lose." Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Cocky much?" I shook my head.

"No, I'm just being realistic. My group… we've been training since the same time your group started. However, we don't have as many people, so the training is going fast."

"How far along are you? We were just starting to cast shield spells."

"Oh, we past that earlier. We were in the middle of mixing hand to hand combat with wandless magic. Su Li was teaching us different forms of martial arts while I was teaching the others wandless magic. We're getting better." Hermione stared at me, wide eyed.

"Wandless? I've never heard of such a thing!" she exclaimed. I nodded.

"Not many people believe that wandless magic is possible. But then, that's all accidental magic is."

"I suppose. If what you say is true, then the DA doesn't have much of a chance." She laughed softly to herself, shaking her head. "Maybe I was too easy on them." I smiled.

"Maybe."

We lapsed into silence again, just enjoying each other's presence now. Hermione had grown since the last time I'd talked to her. Not physically, but rather mentally. She wasn't trying to stuff knowledge down my throat. She was actually listening to me for once. It felt nice to talk to her like this.

"I'm really sorry," she said suddenly. I raised an eyebrow in question. "If there was one person who didn't deserve to become ill like this, it was definitely you. I've been searching throughout the entire library. I have seven weeks of detention for breaking into the restricted section, but I didn't care. I wanted to find some way to help you. I only proved to show just how unhelpful I am."

"Don't blame yourself for not being able to find anything on my illness," I told her. "Not even my best healers know what's wrong with me. Not even Pomfrey can figure it out. It's a mystery, which is why I'm separated from the rest of the medical ward. Pomfrey isn't sure if I'm contagious or not, but since so many people have come to visit me without getting sick, I'm certain that I'm not."

"You have your own medics?" Hermione questioned. I nodded. "How big is your group? What is it called?"

"My group extends outside of the school. We students can't do everything, now can we? It's called DW. That's short for Dire Wolf. I named it that to stimulate loyalty towards each other. Wolves work in tight packs. Because of these tight packs, they work well together to bring down their prey. I thought that if I named us after the wolves, we can create a sort of pack mentality."

"I get it. Because the Death Eaters don't trust each other, they don't have much skill when it comes to teamwork. If you work as a team, you will accomplish more than working alone." I nodded my agreement.

"It wasn't hard coming up with a name. Training everyone was harder, but we all had fun." I stared down at my hands. "Now it's going to be over." A hand fell onto my shoulder. I looked up to find Hermione's brown eyes burning with determination.

"You're not going to die, Harry. Not when I'm still here. I will find out what's wrong with you. I promise." I smiled at her, amused by her enthusiasm. If only I could hope like that.

"Thank you, Hermione," I whispered before clutching my head. "Um, I don't mean to put you out, but I'm exhausted." Hermione nodded, standing up.

"It's alright. You should rest. I'll come visit it you later." I smiled and voiced my agreement before she left the room.

I sighed as I laid back on my pillow, wallowing in its softness. I yawned, stretching. My body felt so tight and stiff. I was so exhausted.

Before I fell asleep, someone took my hand. I'm pretty sure I smiled.

* * *

I wish to make an announcement... Actually, it's pretty good news, really. I just got over a case of writer's block. Well, partially over, but it's better, really. I'm actually nervous about writing a really important chapter because it has action in it. It might suck because I suck at action scenes, but I'll try my best. Just for you, I'll go over it several times with several different people just to get it write.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: What is the point of a disclaimer? If I owned Harry Potter, do you really think I'd be sending my stuff to this site?**

**Please read the Note at the end of the chapter. It contains information towards the future of said story.**_  


* * *

A deep sigh resonated throughout the darkness. Uh oh. I recognize this. This is the same place I came to before when those three voices were talking. I never did figure out who they were nor did I tell anyone about them. I tried in vain to shout or speak in some form or manner, but I was voiceless. What was going on? Where exactly was I?_

_ "He is aware of us again," the second voice from before said. "I think that it is time that we told him what was happening to him."_

_ "I agree," said the sinister third voice. "He will die without this knowledge. Our very existence depends on this."_

_ "I say no," the first voice said. He was the cause of the deep sigh._

_ "You can't really mean that!" the second voice exclaimed. "He is dying! He needs to know how to cure his illness! As I stated before, he wasn't raised properly or around those who would understand what his problem is. Neither is he around anyone knowledgeable of his problem now."_

_ "The few who are around aren't even pure," the third voice said. "They're sick themselves and don't even realize it."_

_ "Are you really going to keep the boy in the dark until he finally expires?" the second voice continued. "He will _die _if we keep this information from him. We will _die. _Is that what you want?"_

_ "No, but we shall refrain from telling him the cure," the first voice said. There's a cure? My illness had a cure? Why weren't they going to tell me? Why wasn't he allowing them to tell me? I was dying, and he was just going to let me die! "Hush, boy. Your thoughts are loud." You can hear me?_

_ "Yes, we can all hear you, child," the second voice said. "We're in your mind." Oh God, I have three other voices in my mind. Did this mean that I was insane?_

_ "Foolish brat!" the third voice hissed. "We're not just some random insane voices. We're-"_

_ "That's enough!" the first voice shouted. It grew quiet. "Better. As I was saying, we shall refrain from telling him. Someone else will do so soon enough."_

_ "Who?" the second voice questioned while I echoed it._

_ "Who it is doesn't matter," a new voice said, their soft, feminine voice echoing throughout my mind. "He will be told his problem and the cure soon enough. Now, can we please stop arguing over nothing."_

_ "You! I thought I silenced you!" the third voice shouted. A snort was heard._

_ "You cannot silence what can't be silenced, dark one," the fourth voice said. "I am just as much a part of him as you are." A part of me? Okay, what was going on? They were me?_

_ "In a way, boy," the first voice said. "I believe that it is time for us to meet face to mental face." The darkness grew silent, but it didn't stay that way. I watched as my mind grew bright and my five cores came into view. My main core, which was light blue, lay in the center of a diamond formation. At the very tip was my deep pink core, which I'd received after stealing Umbridge's magic. Opposite of it was my blood red core. To the left of my main core was my neon purple core. Opposite of it was moon colored core._

_ Why was I being shown my cores again? I thought I was supposed to be meeting those voices face to face. Abruptly, my cores began to shift and move, breaking from their previous formation in order to line up in a single row before me. Then they started to change. They glowed brighter and began to shift and morph, elongating and squishing together as if someone was molding them like clay. Finally, they began to take definite shapes, and I couldn't help but stare as those shapes became humanoid._

_ My red core twisted and turned before taking the shape of a young man with red hair and red eyes. My pink core shifted and morphed before turning into a young girl with pink hair and eyes. My moon-colored core took the shape of a young man with white hair and eyes. My neon purple core shifted into a man as well, with purple hair and eyes. My blue core twisted and attempted to change before relaxing into a sphere again._

_ I stared at my cores, or rather, what used to be my cores. Suddenly, things began to click in my mind. They were the voices. The little girl smiled and nodded her head in agreement with my thought._

_ "Hi," she said cheerfully. "I'm the fourth voice you heard. It's nice to finally get to talk to you in person." I stared at her in disbelief. No fucking way. "Hey! You can't use language like that! It's not polite!" No. Fucking. Way!_

_ "It appears that he is in disbelief," the white haired man said. He was the second voice. He smiled at me and nodded. "Don't worry, Takuya. We will explain."_

_ "It is simple," the red hair man said. He was the first voice. The voice that told everyone not to tell me how to cure my illness. He nodded absentmindedly as the thought passed. "Yes, well, I have my reasons. However, that is neither here nor there. The reason why we're able to communicate and take on a form like this is because we're powerful magical energy."_

_ "We have gotten so potent that we've become, well, alive!" the girl exclaimed excitedly. "Of course, we would just disappear without a host, so we aren't going to ever leave you, Takuya."_

_ "We are also manifestations of different parts of you, with the except of Pink," the white haired one said. "I am the manifestation of your wolf energy, only it was transformed into magic." Wolf energy? Oh, my werewolf side. I'd forget I was even a wolf for a second. The man scowled, gazing at me with disappointment. I guess he wasn't happy to hear that I'd pretty much forgotten about him._

_ "I am the manifestation of your vampire magic," the red one said._

_ "I represent your elemental energy," the sinister purple said. He smirked at my description of him._

_ "I don't represent anything," Pink said, disappointed. "Oh well. Maybe next time." Next time?_

_ "She's joking," was the response from the chorus of men._

_ "We're been discussing your illness for some time now," Red said. "You are deathly ill with only so much time left. As it is, us talking to you like this is using up magic."_

_ "Then why don't we stop before we all die!" Purple shouted. I agreed with him. I could talk to them later. I didn't want to die too soon. If there was a cure, I was going to find it. Red smiled._

_ "That's the spirit kid." That was the last thing I heard before my vision grew black and the scene changed._

* * *

_ "You're dying aren't you?" Naruto questioned. I found myself back in the clearing again. He was sitting beside me, picking at the grass between his legs. I sighed._

_ "Yeah, I am," I told him. "But I'm not giving up. Not anymore, anyway. Before I was resigned. Now, I know that there is a cure for my illness. I just don't know what it is."_

_ "You'll figure it out," Naruto whispered. "How long do you have?"_

_ "A week. Maybe less." A scowled stretched on his face._

_ "Damn. Only a week. That sucks. I wish I could help." I shrugged._

_ "Maybe you can," I said. "I just don't know how." We grew quiet. I stared up into the sky while Naruto continued to pick at the grass._

_ "Maybe it has something to do with your race," he said. "There are viruses and illnesses specific to different races. Maybe it's like that. What are you?"_

_ "I'm half vampire, half werewolf," I responded, watching as the clouds went by._

_ "Really? I'm half vampire, half demon," he responded. I saw him smiling out the corner of my eye. "Maybe we're more alike than we thought. I might just be able to help you after all. My sister used to travel as much as possible just to get away from our village. She didn't like dealing with humans, despite being half human."_

_ "Humans can be so prejudice and arrogant," I commented. Naruto hummed his agreement._

_ "That what she thought, too. I can't help but agree after everything I've gone through." He paused, allowing me time to ponder his words. What had the boy gone through? "Anyway, my sister loved visiting werewolf packs. I always wondered about her because werewolves and vampires didn't get along. Werewolves were born to kill vampires and vice versa. The same goes for youkai – demons – and vampires. That's why I'm hated so much."_

_ "We're both freaks of nature," I stated. "I've begun to stop caring." Naruto smirked._

_ "Yeah well, my sister began to research werewolf diseases and illnesses." He paused. "Takuya, you're about to die over something really, really stupid." I snapped my head around so fast that my neck popped._

_ "Excuse me?" I said. Naruto flinched underneath my glare and turned away._

_ "Well, it's stupid if you knew about it, and still didn't figure out what was wrong with you," he continued, trying to placate me. "It's a rare but known werewolf illness. I'm pretty sure only those who were properly raised would contract it."_

_ "Well, my guardians were humans," I stated. "I didn't even know I wasn't until last summer." Naruto stared at me, his eyes wide._

_ "Wow. Then of course you would contract it," he said. "I'm just surprised that you're coming down with it now instead of months ago. It probably has something to do with your vampiric side."_

_ "You're babbling. Get to the damn point." Naruto sighed._

_ "I'm not even certain that's what's wrong with you," he said. "Tell me your symptoms first. In the order they showed up in." I glared at him before sighing._

_ "Fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, heightened senses, vomiting, fever, delirium, loss of consciousness, weight loss, and headaches," I listed. Naruto nodded._

_ "Yep, I was right. You're suffering from an illness associated with the lack of raw protein in your diet." I stared at him. "Another way of saying it is that because you haven't been eating raw meat at least once every week, your body has begun to shut down. It's your werewolf side screaming I'm hungry. You'll first become tired from the lack of the natural protein that comes from eating the raw meat. Afterward, your body will send signals to your brain telling it that you don't want to eat anymore cooked food. This leads to the nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and heightened senses. The smell and look of cooked human food will make you sick to your stomach. It's similar to how I get when I go without raw meat for a week. This is because of my demonic side." He paused. "When was the last time I ate something raw anyway? I think I might just go hunting after this."_

_ While he contemplated his next hunt, my mind was racing from all of the information. I was near death because I didn't eat raw meat? How stupid was that? Why did my body have to nearly kill me because of didn't eat anything raw? However, that did explain why I could drink milk. Milk was raw, never processed, something that a human couldn't cook. It came from an animal. It made sense that I could drink it. I also understood why when I'd taken that bite of Salazar's sandwich, the meat had went down easily. It was deli meat, just barely cooked, slightly raw to an extent. It made sense, no matter how stupid the cause was. That meant that when I woke up I'd have to eat something raw and fast._

_ "Naruto," I said, interrupting his planning. "Thank you. Thank you so much. You have just saved my life." Naruto cocked his head to the side before smiling._

_ "You're still dying, you know," he said. "We're born dying. However, you and I are the lucky ones. When we turn twenty-one, we'll stop aging indefinitely." My eyes widened. I hadn't known that._

_ "Does that mean that…" I faded. He nodded._

_ "We're pretty much immortal." The word echoed throughout my mind after he'd said it. I was immortal. I'd never die. I would live forever and ever. I would have an eternity to do whatever I wished. However, that didn't knock the other thoughts out of my head. The worst one nearly made my heart stop. I would see all of my friends grow old and die._

_ "Stop depressing yourself," Naruto said, interrupting my thoughts. How had he known what I was thinking? "It's time for you to go home and eat some raw meat. Make sure you get is a bloody as possible. Kill two birds with one stone." I blinked and realized that I hadn't had blood in a very long while._

_ I went to close my eyes before stopping and turning back to Naruto. "Thank you, Naruto."_

_ "You've said that already."_

_ "No, not for saving my life, but for staying by my bedside while I slept." I turned and blushed softly. "I remember that." I turned back to find him grinning._

_ "It was no problem. What are friends for, huh?" I couldn't help but grin with him._

_ "Yeah. What are they for?"_

* * *

My eyes popped open, and I bolted up. Glancing around, I found that it was still dark outside. The moon was sitting in the very center of my window. I guessed that it was the around midnight. That was good. I wouldn't be disturbed while I fed. Now all I had to figure out was how I was going to get fresh meat. The answer came easily.

"Dobby!" I hissed. A second later, a crack resounded as the house elf Apparated into my room. The next thing I knew, he was clutching my arm with a death grip, sobbing madly.

"Dobby heard the news about Mr. Harry Potter!" he cried. "So sad! So sad!"

"Dobby, calm down! I'm not dying. Not if you do something for me." The house elf removed himself from my arm immediately and stared up at me with big eyes.

"What can Dobby do for you, Mr. Harry Potter sir," he said. "Dobby will do anything to help you."

"Good. Bring me raw meat. As much as possible. As bloody as possible," I ordered. The elf nodded before exiting with a crack. I sighed. I wasn't going to die. I never knew how good it was to think such words. I could almost dance if I weren't so exhausted.

After another pop, Dobby returned with a white package. One whiff its scent made my stomach rumble and my mouth water. I snatched the package from the elf's hands and ripped it open to reveal a nice, large, _bloody, _steak. Before I sank my teeth into it, I paused and began to inspect it for any form of poisoning. Finding none, I ripped off a chunk and ate it. The first bite was heaven. The thick blood ran down my throat, quenching the fires that I hadn't even realized were burning. The flavorful, rich meat made my taste buds sing and my stomach groan, wanting me to swallow already. I did, and once I started eating, I didn't stop until I had finished the steak.

After devouring it, I finally noticed the lovely mess I'd made of the white linen. I shrugged before turning to the horrified elf. I snorted. "Relax, Dobby. I'm not going to eat you, too. Don't tell anyone, alright?" He nodded. "Good. Now get me another steak." With a pop he was gone. I rolled up the wrappings of the last one. Feeling my magic come back to me, I made it disappear before returning the linen back to its former white glory.

Dobby returned as I was licking my fingers from my previous steak. "Thanks," I said to him before attacking the next one. I sent him back for seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths. By the time I was full, Dobby was exhausted, it was getting light out, and I'd just been informed by the elf that he would have to change dinner plans since I'd managed to singlehandedly eat all of the steak that was supposed to be for tonight's dinner. When he told me that, my eyes grew wide. That was a lot of steak. Who eats that much? Oh yeah, that's right. A boy who hasn't been able to eat for a month. I was sure that I'd have a shrunken stomach, but that steak had gone down easy.

"Thanks again, Dobby," I told the elf. "I'm sorry if I've frightened you. At least I'm not dying anymore."

"Dobby was happy to help, Mr. Potter sir," he said before exiting with a pop. I once again returned the sheets to their original white color and collapsed onto my back, full and exhausted. And greatly satisfied, might I add. After a moment, I fell asleep to the soft singing of the morning birds outside my window.

* * *

Pomfrey hummed as she removed the thermometer from my mouth and stared at it. She gazed at me out of the corner of her eyes, looking me over. She turned back to the thermometer. "It seems that your fever has gone down, Mr. Potter," she said calmly. I forced a look of surprise onto my face. Here comes a true test of my acting skills.

"What does that mean?" I asked, making sure to keep my voice free of any hope. Even she knew that I had given up.

Pomfrey frowned before shaking her head. "I'm not sure yet, Mr. Potter. Let me just continue with the tests. Please lie on your back." I fell back and closed my eyes. After a moment of shuffling, I felt her magic flow over my body. A minute later, the magic was gone, and I opened my eyes again to find the woman staring at me in disbelief.

"What?" I questioned.

Pomfrey stared at me, her eyes wide. "Your magic is running freely throughout your entire body again," she said. "The heart is pumping more normally, and there is little to no sign that you were ever ill. Mr. Potter, you're cure." I stared at her, summoned up all of my acting skills, and burst into tears of joy. Real tears, too. I already knew I was cured, but having her say it made it seem so much realer. I wasn't going to die.

Pomfrey seemed to be as emotional as I was. "Thank heavens your illness is gone," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Lily and James would have killed me." I snorted as I wiped the tears from my eyes. Her joyous attitude faded after a moment. "Though, I would like to know why it went suddenly disappeared overnight." I blinked and shrugged.

"I have no idea," I told her. "I'm just happy I'm not dying." Pomfrey nodded, though she seemed a little suspicious.

"Yes, well, that is good and all, but you will need to remain here for another week until I'm positive that your illness isn't just playing us for fools," she said. "Tell me. How is your stomach?"

"It's not doing gymnastics now," I said, holding my stomach. It actually grumbled. I couldn't be happier to hear that sound. Pomfrey sighed with relief.

"At least now we know you can eat," she said. "Tell me what you want, and I'll get it from the kitchen. Better yet, your friends can bring it up from breakfast."

"Sausage, eggs, bacon," I said immediately. "That's all I want. Meat." Pomfrey rolled her eyes.

"I'll see what I can do," she said. "Just stay here and relax. Don't want to get sick again, now do we?" She laughed at horrified expression.

"Madame Pomfrey, I've spent so much time in your ward that I have my own room," I told her indicating to the isolation room. Pomfrey smiled at my little joke.

"Yes, and if you keep coming back, this might be your permanent home." I laughed as I watched her leave the room. Alone, I relaxed and sighed. I was going to live, and the only person I could thank for my second chance at life was Naruto. I'd have to thank him again the next time I saw him.

Pomfrey returned a few minutes later. Before I could accept her plate of food, I was jumped on by all of my friends. And I do mean _all _of my friends. Underneath their combined weight, I was losing the ability to feel my limbs. Breathing was also becoming difficult, but I willingly ignored it just for them. I hadn't even realized they cared so much. It took a few minutes, but at Pomfrey's warning of me being crushed to death, everyone removed themselves from me.

"It's nice to know that you have such caring friends, Mr. Potter," Pomfrey said as she handed me my plate.

"Yeah. They care so much that it hurts," I joked as I weakly accepted the plate. My arms were still tingly from the lack of blood flow. Pomfrey smirked before leaving my room.

"You're going to live!" Ron shouted before grabbing me again. I chuckled as he hugged.

"Yes, I'm going to live," I told him, smiling. "Thank every god known to man." I set my plate down and opened my arms. I was quickly accosted by everyone again, however, only Hermione leapt into my arms.

"I'm so happy that you're going to survive," she said, crying into my chest. "I was so worried. I'm sorry I couldn't find out anything to help you. I feel so worthless."

I hugged her tighter, petting her bushy hair. "It's alright," I said. "I doubt anyone would have been able to find out what was wrong with me. I only figure out what was wrong by pure luck and with the help of a friend." Hermione released and sat down on the edge of my bed.

"Who helped you?" I smiled and shook my head.

"I'll tell you later. I promise. When I get out of this accursed room, most likely. Until then, I'm afraid that I'll just have to keep that part a secret." Hermione narrowed her eyes at me. "Don't worry, Hermione. You're not the only one who is going to be left in the dark. Think of it like this. It will be your present for joining D.W." Her eyes widened along with everyone else's.

"You're letting her join?" was the exclamation from the others apart of the group, which merged with Hermione exclamation of, "You're letting me join?" I nodded, agreeing with both statements. Some weren't exactly happy with it.

"Why are you letting her join?" Daphne questioned, annoyed. "She's one of _them. _Doesn't that count for anything?"

"Hermione is no longer with the D.A.," I explained. "She left of her own volition."

"That still doesn't mean you should let her join us. She could be a spy."

"Only a fool would join our group with such a thing in mind." I turned to Hermione. "Once you're in the pack, you can't leave. At all." Hermione looked surprised before nodding.

"I understand," she said before turning to Daphne. "I know that you don't trust me, but I could be an important asset to the pack. The D.A. isn't what it used to be."

"Yeah, they're only mission now is to get rid of Harry," Ron said. "That's what Padma told me, anyway." The Ravenclaw Patil nodded.

"Chang is out to get Harry after he rejected her earlier in the year," she said. "The vapid gold digger is becoming a nuisance. She's actually rather intelligent, and that is what makes her increasingly annoying." Parvati nodded.

"She's been planning something with Ginny," she said. "At least, that's what Susan and Hannah have told me. They dropped out of the group after the change in leadership. They don't agree with Chang and Weasley's new mission. I actually think that they'd make a good addition to the team."

"Why should we include them?" Blaise questioned. I smirked when I saw something flash in his eyes. Maybe I should make him my second instead of Ace.

Padma gazed at him questioningly before figuring out what he was doing. Padma smiled. "Well, Harry," she said, eliciting a laugh from everyone including Blaise and a confused look from Hermione, "they dislike the direction the Defense Association is going, too. Plus, they show rather great potential."

"That only someone like Harry could bring out," Blaise said, smiling at me. "I can't wait until you get back on your feet. Pomfrey said that you'd be stuck here for another week until she was certain that your illness was gone."

"You'd better tell us how you got rid of it," Astoria threatened. I laughed. Only she would threaten a previously dying person.

"Of course, Astoria. I promise. Now, can I eat?" I questioned. Ron passed me my plate. The food was mostly cold, but I wasn't going to complain. I ate it all.

Ron laughed after I passed the empty plate to him. "Hungry much?" I smirked.

"Trust me. You have no idea."

* * *

**Note:**

**Okay, before you guys start rioting, I'm not canceling the story. School is about to start for me at the end of the month, so once school starts, updates will be coming slow. The reason for why this chapter took so long was because I had to go through Submerged and see how far i was into it. I'm only on Chapter 8. T_T Writer's block sucks.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Please read the author note at the bottom of the page. It retains to the continuation of the story. Thank you, and please enjoy.**

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I entered the room where I requested for us to meet. "Us" being Lily, James, the Founders, my sisters, Sirius, and Remus. Gideon and Fabian had remained in Rome to finish working on Takuya's estate. They wouldn't have wanted to come anyway. They hated politics just as much as Takuya did, which was the reason why I had summoned the others. I sat down at the head of the long table. I took a breath.

"Takuya is going to be angry at me for this, but I truly believe that we should go political," I told them. Before they could argue, I continued. "Now, I know we don't have time for politics, and even if we decided to go political, we wouldn't have enough time to gather a following. I don't care about a following. Takuya wants to leave Britain the way it is: corrupted and arrogant. At one point, I agreed with him, but after he told me about Umbridge, that changed. Greatly. Wizarding World Britain is going to destroy itself if we just sit back and do nothing. Naturally, I would consider that I good thing, but there are too many wizards that live here that have the potential for great things. It would be a waste."

"But why not just kill the Minister and take over?" Salazar questioned. My face remained expressionless. He was toying with me. He constantly did this. For what reason, I did not know. It was becoming a nuisance, though.

"Because a hostile takeover won't get the civilians on our side, Slytherin," I said coldly. "There are several steps we will have to go through. We have several seats open in the Wizengamott. Why not use them?"

"That's understandable, but by going political, wouldn't that in turn create a new faction?" Rowena questioned. I nodded.

"Naturally. It's an expected problem, but it's worth the trouble. We are, technically, a separate faction. Though we don't necessarily want to help the people, we should at least show them that there is someone out there is someone competent enough to protect them."

"I agree," Rowena said, absentmindedly playing with her hair. "Would you remind exactly what the current factions are?"

"The Light Faction, which is led by Dumbledore," Bella said, "the Dark Faction, which is led by Voldemort, and then there is the Ministry, led by Fudge. All three factions are corrupted in their own way. Dumbledore wants to be seen as the hero, even if it's through manipulating people and the creating situations. Voldemort…does he really need an explanation? Fudge is an incompetent fool who allows Death Eaters with money, like my dear brother-in-law, to fill his pockets with money as long as he passes certain bills for them. None of them really want to help the people."

"Exactly," I said, mildly impressed by my elder sister's political knowledge. Then again, she had worked closely with the leader of the Dark faction for many years. It wasn't surprising that she knew of such political information. "Of course, it's not just that. None of the factions support the magical creatures."

"Voldemort recruited them, though," Bella stated thoughtfully, staring down at the oak table. "He promised them that they would be free from the multiple legislations passed against them. It was a hollow promise, though. I'm certain that he'll just have them killed for not being pureblooded wizards."

"He's a hypocritical fool, and I am embarrassed that he even originated from my line," Salazar said, gazing down at the table in thought. Godric snorted.

"Is that so, DeMedici?" he questioned, smirking. He was obviously amused by how ironic this was. "I find it rather hypocritical of you since you pretty much started the entire pureblood propaganda when we were still alive. Ironic even." Salazar glared at his old friend. Everyone sat in silence as the two men stared at each other. Salazar glared expressionless at the smiling Godric. I'm certain that the thought going through the Slytherin founder's head was similar to mine. Can I just slap him already?

Salazar ended the staring contest. He sat back, his eyes closed, smiling as he shook his head. He seemed to be amused. "Yes, well, several hundred years is certainly enough time for a person to change their opinion, no?" he asked calmly. "Voldemort is a fool. I can't wait for the day I see him dead. That is Takuya's job, though. The best I can do is support him and train him as best I can. After all, if not for the careful manipulations of his mentor, he would be a Slytherin, no?" The smile fell from Godric's face in an instant. The Gryffindor founder frowned before nodding.

"True, true," he said. "That is beside the point. We're the best hope for the magical creatures. I think we should go into politics. We have the resources. Now we just need to put ourselves out there. Though, I wished we'd be able to _do _something already ready. Takuya is going at this far too slowly for my tastes." Rowena rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Politics is a boring game, Godric," she said, smiling softly. "Sitting around waiting is boring, too. I'm not surprised that you're itching for a fight already."

"I guess you've gotten tired of doing nothing but training, hm, Brother?" Helga questioned. "You always were an active one." Godric glared at the two of them. From what I could tell, he was probably trying to figure out whether he was being insulted or not.

"So, does anyone object to this course of action?" I asked. None objected. "Alright, then, let's move on."

"Wait, who is going to be the proxy of our faction? What is going to be called?" Andromeda questioned. "Also, exactly how many seats do we have open in the Wizengamott?"

"Well, I think Narcissa should be the proxy," Rowena stated. "After all, her ex husband was into politics. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew a thing or two about the game." Merlin, the Founders seemed to enjoy teasing those younger than them. Yes, the woman was beautiful, but her high intelligence made her rather…annoying for lack of a better term.

"I suppose I can agree with this," I replied. "To answer your second question, sister, we'll simply be called the Grey Faction. Nothing fancy. It shows exactly where we stand. We're neither Dark nor Light. We're in the middle."

"To answer your question about the seats, I suppose we hold several," Sirius said suddenly. I had forgotten that he and Remus were here. Neither he nor the werewolf had said anything. Lily and James were sitting quietly as well.

"Which are?" Andromeda questioned. Sirius shifted in his seat before continuing.

"We hold Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor," he listed, ticking them off on his fingers. "We also hold Black, Potter, and the DeMedici seat."

"We also hold Peverell," James added. "So that's a total of eight seats."

"We have eight seats and only one proxy," I said. "How exactly is that going to work?"

"Simple. We add seven more proxies," Rowena replied, "though one is enough to handle eight votes. I volunteer." I frowned.

"I'm not entirely sure, Rowena," I said. "Rowena DeMedici is a name that's already in the history books. People would grow suspicious." The woman smiled at me as though I were a foolish little child. I definitely did not like her.

"Yes, but the original Rowena DeMedici is dead. No one would suspect that I was her."

"Yes, but so is the DeMedici line, or so we thought. Just your last name would generate questions about who you are. People would look into who you are."

"The goblins," Lily said suddenly. We turned our attention to her. "If we get in good with the goblins, they will be willing to create the proper paperwork and documentation necessary to fool the general public."

"Always was thinking ahead," James mumbled, earning a punch in the arm by his wife. "But if you're going to do that, at least change your names. First names, anyway. I know parents do that a lot if some famous person came from their line, but it will only make people look even further into your background." We all stared at him. "What? Why is it so shocking that I thought this up? I mean, really. I came up with all of the pranks in school." Sirius and Remus nodded in affirmation.

"He did," Sirius said, smirking. "He always did have a knack for scheming. This is right up his alley." James glared at his friend, but didn't argue.

"I agree," Salazar said, gaining our attention. "If we're going to return to the public eye, we should hide as much of our identity as possible. As such, changing our names would be efficient."

"What about your appearance?" Remus suggested. "Though, the portraits of you don't exactly resemble you much." Godric grinned.

"That's because we changed our appearances when we were still floating around in the In-Between," he replied. "Trust me. I was not born a blonde. My ghost did lumber around Hogwarts, didn't it?" Yes, many of us definitely recalled his ghost. He had been a brunette, if I recalled correctly, and hadn't looked a thing like he did now. Salazar had appeared frightening and devious in all of his portraits. Now, he reminded me of Lucius slightly. Aristocratic and well bred. He looked like a pureblood. Helga had appeared… a little overweight but loving in her portraits. She still appeared loving, but was relatively slimmer. Not only that, but she was a blonde now, just like her brother. Rowena was still beautiful, but her beauty was different from that of when she was still alive. Now she was a black haired pale skinned beauty, not a brown haired pinkish skinned beauty.

"Yes, your appearances are remarkably different," I admitted, "so there will be no need to change them. However, the names must change. At least in public." Rowena nodded.

"That sounds logical enough," she said. She adopted a thoughtful position. "Well, the DeMedici family originated from Italy, so my brother and I could adopt Italian names. Just give us a few hours, and we shall have something acceptable." I nodded and turned to Godric. He was grinning.

"I've always liked the name Spencer," he said. I shook my head. This man was so… strange. Who thinks up something as important as a name that quickly? Why was he smiling so much?

Helga giggled at my expense. "My brother is rather odd, isn't he?" She smiled. "I think I'll take my time figuring out my name." I shook my head and sighed. Odd bunch they were.

"Ah, Takuya wishes for me to tell you something," Salazar said suddenly. I turned to him only to find his eyes trained on the wall to the right of the room. He appeared to be deep in thought, but I was sure that he was simply having a mental conversation with our Alpha.

I stopped my train of thought. Most people would hate being ordered around by a boy who was old enough to be their son. However, Takuya displayed power that was unimaginable. I was sure that if he continued training, that if he survived whatever the hell he was going through, he'd be unstoppable. He was already well in on his to being more powerful than Voldemort and Dumbledore combined. He just needed some help bring out his full potential. It was a wonder that with all of these skilled duelists sitting around the table that he hadn't brought it out by now.

"Takuya wishes for you to remove Gaby and the others from Beauxbaton," Salazar said suddenly. His eyes were still trained on the wall. "He wishes for you to begin training them."

"Who?" I questioned. Salazar shrugged.

"He also wishes for us to start," he continued. We all knew what that meant. Bellatrix's lips curled into a smile. She had been waiting for this since she'd gotten her new body.

"When does he want us to start? Who are out targets?" I questioned.

"He wants us to start immediately. Our targets are Death Eaters, free or imprisoned, people who associate with the Death Eaters, and he means this illegally. Corrupted politicians, and the sort. All of them are your targets, and he wants them taken out. He also wants us to leave our mark, and to leave the best for last."

"He means the inner circle," Bella said, her smile turning into a full blown grin that sent shivers up my spine. A second set of shivers went through me, though those were from excitement. Lucius was mine.

"As of right now, Dire Wolves is going from training to missions. He wants you all well trained and well informed. He also thinks that your idea about going into politics is a good one, Narcissa." Salazar turned to me and smiled. "I would be lying if I said he was remotely proud of you." I glared at him, but that insult didn't stop the emotion that I felt swelling up inside of me. If there was one thing any of our pack trained and fought for, it would have to be the pride of our Alpha.

"Okay, then," I said. "Why are we just sitting here? Our Alpha wants us to start, so we shall start!" A cheer rang out over the table. "Let's go. We need our surveyors tracking our targets, our hunters searching for new targets, and our assassins ready to kill. Let's go!"

* * *

**Man, it's been awhile since I've updated. That's mostly due to the fact that school just started, and my mom's threatened me that if I so much as a get C this year, she'll take every electronic I know and won't give it back to June 2011. So me being on the computer and being able to update regularly is going to be tough, but I'll try.**

** There is another reason as to why I haven't updated in forever. I'm having a severe case of writer's block for this story. I've been trying to write chapter 8 for awhile now. I thought that maybe if I went to another story, it would come back to me. Yeah, well that hasn't worked out. Actually, that made it worse since now I'm working on like twelve stories at one time and preparing to write five more. I'm so mentally disorganized.**

** Anyway, I was actually thinking about rewriting Submerged. I think I went into the story a little too soon. I was thinking of rewriting the entire series, but if I have to rewrite the beginning paragraph of The Light one more time, I'm going to scream. So I might only just rewrite Submerged. But don't worry. I will never stop writing this series. I wanna see what happens to Takuya in the end, too.**

** With that out of the way, updates will be slow for all of my stories, including this one. Sorry. However, please check my profile page for any more information. I try to update it each time I log on.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm in a really good mood and have great news to report to all of you. My writer's block is officially gone! (W00t W00t!) with that comes even greater news. I've been struggling to write chapter eight since I post like chapter four, so I just trashed it an rewrote the damn thing. That made life so much more easier. However, updates will continue to be a little slow. Junior year of high school sucks. Check my profile for my Twitter page. I've started using it to post updates for my stories. Enjoy!**

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News was circulating around the school at a fast rate. I couldn't be happier. The Daily Prophet was constantly headlining the recent deaths of suspected and convicted Death Eaters. Once a week, someone associated to the Dark Lord or thought to be associated to him was found dead in a variety of different ways. As of right now, the death toll was six, but that was enough to get everyone's attention. All the people wanted to know was who killed them and why. Of course, the murderers had left their mark. The symbol drawn in blood on each corpse was the same symbol that decorated some random part of my pack's body. It was the symbol of the wolves. The Dire Wolves, to be exact. A wolf drawn in the ways of the Celtics, howling at the rising crescent moon. That was our mark. That was our symbol, and it now struck fear into the hearts of all, specifically all who were corrupt.

I snatched the current copy of the Daily Prophet from Ron's hands. He glared at me before resigning. It was too early to start a fight over a biased paper. As I stared at the front page, it took everything I had to hold back the grin that threatened to split my face in two. It seemed like one of my pack had decided to leave a message with their latest victim. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced up at the faculty table. By the loss of color in Umbridge's face and the horror that was etched on her ugly mug, I'd say that she had seen the message, too.

"Who wrote that?" Fred whispered into my ear. "'We're coming for you next, Umbridge.' Think they were specific enough?" The grin exploded onto my face.

"I don't know," I said. "It's not like she doesn't exactly deserve it. Poor 'Mione is still bleeding from her torture with that bitch. I hope they kill her in the most painful way possible."

"Harsh much, Potter?" Draco questioned as he sipped from my goblet. I glared at him.

"Don't you have your own table?" I snapped, loud enough to gain the attention of pretty much everyone in the Great Hall. I flushed slightly. Hadn't meant to do that.

Draco grinned at me before raising up _my _goblet and bringing it to _his _lips again. I glared harder. "You're not scary, Potter," he teased. My butter knife turned into a butcher knife. Draco's eyes widened. He set down my goblet and took a step back. "A little hostile, don't you think?"

"Can I help you, Draco?" I asked. He grinned at me, though was obviously wary of the knife in my hand.

"Can't friends come over and talk to friends?" he asked sweetly. My knife turned back into a butter knife. Draco visibly relaxed and grabbed an empty seat and sat down next to me. "So, who do you think is killing all of those Death Eaters?" I rolled my eyes.

"The Wolves or whatever they call themselves," I played along, pretending as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was. Draco glared at me.

"No! Who do you think is _in _the group or organization?" I shrugged.

"Don't know, but I think they're doing a pretty good job," I said. "At least they're not like Dumbledore, who is afraid to kill even if it's necessary."

"Harry, don't say that!" Hermione scolded playing along. "Dumbledore believes that everyone deserves a second chance. Don't you think so? That's what makes him different from Voldemort."

"Truthfully, yes, I do believe that some people deserve a second chance," I responded, aware of everyone's eyes on me. "It's just that, not _everyone _deserves a second chance. Take… Rudolphus Lestrange for example. He's one of the more dangerous Death Eaters. If anything, he'd continue to kill even if he had a chance to redeem himself. Some people don't _want _second chances. Hell, even if he wanted a second chance, I doubt anyone would give it to him. He's murdered thousands. He doesn't deserve a second chance. And anyway, Dumbledore doesn't believe in just second chances. He believes in third chances, fourth chances, fifth chances and so on. He's too forgiving. He doesn't know when enough is enough."

"Finally! _Someone _said it!" Daphne exclaimed in exasperation from the Slytherin table. I watched as she and her sister left their table and dropped down into ours, including Blaise. "The old coot is far too forgiving. These Death Eaters have murdered and raped, and he wants to give them a second chance. I don't think so. It's foolish and damaging to our already degrading society."

"Truthfully, I think our lovely society needs a reform," Astoria stated. "Some of the laws are completely biased towards purebloods. Aren't we all wizards? Why should it matter if we're muggleborn or half-bloods? Even then, why should it matter if we're a vampire or a werewolf? I actually think the people who are placing laws against magical creatures are a bunch of idiots. For Merlin's sake, a single vampire could wipe out an auror troop. What makes them think that taking away their rights will take away their power? We're humans. They're not. They could kill us all, but they haven't. Doesn't that count for something?"

"Humans fear what they cannot understand," Blaise commented, picking at the items on my plate. I glared at him, but he shrugged it off. "Only a select few are wise enough to figure out things such as what you have said, Astoria. We humans believe that we are the strongest. We think that we're on the top of the food chain. However, contrary to popular belief, we aren't. Vampires and werewolves are above us on the food chain. They are our predators. We are their prey. We push _them _back because we're afraid of being killed by them. We don't understand that sometimes dying is a part of life."

"Do not fear death for we are born to die," I said sagely. "The minute we enter the world, we are already dying. That's just what we do. We can't live forever, no matter what everyone else thinks. Immortality is only reserved for those that have found favor in our creator. It may shock some of you, but vampires are very much immortal. Hell if I know how to kill one."

"What about werewolves?" Fred asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know. You would think so since they're the mortal enemies of vampires, but I don't know. I'll ask Remus the next time I see him."

"Do you think he would know anything about the group who is killing all of the Death Eaters?" Su questioned as she came up behind me with Luna. I shrugged.

"Now remember, Su, they are only pureblood who were accused of being Death Eaters, but had all charges dropped due to being under the Imperius," I corrected her sweetly. She snorted.

"Death Eaters," she responded. "Why do you think the group is targeting Umbridge?" Again, I shrugged, but the question was answered by Hermione.

"Well, she does work with the Ministry, and they have been passing laws against magical creatures," she suggested.

"You think that they have something to do with magical creatures?" Padma questioned as she sat next to her sister. Hermione shrugged.

"It was just a guess. After all, they are using a wolf as their symbol. It might just be."

Umbridge finally got annoyed with our discussion. "Return to your respective table immediately," she ordered. "Ten points from all houses. I do not want to hear any more discussion about these murderers nor do I want to hear anything more about Death Eaters and Dumbledore. It's an automatic detention and ten points from either house." We glanced at each other for a moment. Was this woman serious? Umbridge glared at us, and it must have been our lack of movement. "Did you not hear me? Return to your respective houses!" We stared at her. We were all wondering what she would do if we didn't listen to her. From the way her face was changing colors, it was obvious she was becoming upset. "If you don't return to your respective tables, you will all receive a month of detention."

Draco gazed at her before leaning back his chair, making himself comfortable. Daphne smoothed out her robe, and Astoria fluffed up her hair. Blaise turned back to picking at my plate. Luna sat next to Hermione and handed her a Quibbler, smiling dreamily. Su sat beside me and smiled. I grinned back. Padma remained seated next to her sister, taking a sip from Parvati's goblet. That reminded me. Draco still had mine.

Umbridge turned a solid puce at our disobedience. "That's it! A month of detention! All of you! I expect you all in my office this afternoon."

"I don't see why this is bothering you," I said aloud, turning to look her dead in the eye. "Why can't friends sit together at a meal?"

"Because you were each separated into different houses for a reason," she snapped. "Each of you has a different personality and as such, you aren't compatible with each other unless you're from the same house! Gryffindors hate Slytherins and vice versa."

"What about the other houses?" I asked. "It is common to see a student from either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff sitting with a different house at a meal. Why should the few people in Slytherin and Gryffindor be confined to their tables if they've made a friend in the other house? Shouldn't the fact that a Slytherin and a Gryffindor getting along be good news instead of them fighting each other?"

Umbridge was at a loss for words. What I had said made sense. Why shouldn't this be a cause for celebration? When was the last time a Slytherin and a Gryffindor became friends? Now, four Slytherins were sitting at the Gryffindor table enjoying breakfast, or rather, _my _breakfast. I glared at the offending Slytherins.

"Okay, seriously, why are you two eating _my _breakfast?" I asked them. Blaise and Draco stared at me.

"Because you weren't," they responded. My hand twitched. I've never felt the urge to slap someone so strongly. However, before I could get a chance to do so, the bell rang. We all jumped up and dashed for our respective classrooms.

* * *

The days dragged on through March and into April. Exams were coming up, so everyone was putting all of their efforts into the coming O.W.L.s. However, none of the pack was even trying to study. Not with the new information being passed around through the Wizarding World.

"I'll be damned," Ron said as we stared at the daily Prophet Hermione had brought us from breakfast. We were all sitting in the Room of Requirements, taking a break from studying. There was no way we could think of studying now.

"'Bellatrix Black has been dismissed of all charges as of today,'" Hermione read. She looked up at me. "Did you have something to do with this, Harry?" I shook my head.

"Never. Narcissa had only told me that there was going to be a surprise in the Daily Prophet soon and to pay close attention to it. I hadn't known that she was going to do this!"

"Not only that, but she and the others are in the process of revoking all of the laws against non purebloods and magical creatures," Daphne noted. "Because of everything they have been during these past few months, the Gray Faction has become one of the most popular factions."

"We take up most of the Wizengamott," Draco said. "Since the Wolves are killing many corrupt politicians, several heads of house are dying, and we're gaining control of their seats. How many have we gained so far?"

"Ten, so far," I replied as I skimmed through the article. "Especially since they've stopped killing once a week and made it more like once a day. I'm actually starting to think that they enjoy it. Lily has been smiling a lot more lately. I was surprised when she told me that James was volunteering for more missions. I thought he would be against all of the killing, but he seems to enjoy it, too."

"With all of this occurring, the Ministry is being pressed to take more action against these 'vigilantes'," Astoria commented. Daphne snorted.

"Their aurors suck. What do they think they'll accomplish against us? We may not be an army, but quality comes before quantity as opposed to Voldemort's quantity before quality."

"Oh trust me, he has quality, too," Ron replied. "Bellatrix is not one to laugh at. The Ministry is finally figuring out just how many are in the Wolves. After all, all assassins have a different M.O."

"M.O.?" Luna asked.

"Mode of Operation," I responded. "Everyone killer has a preferred way to kill, whether it's by stabbing, slitting the throat, or snapping the neck. Some like to be elaborate with their kills. Others like to be a brutal and gruesome as possible. Everyone has a different way of killing a person. That's their M.O."

"So, from how the victims are killed, the Ministry can tell who killed them?" Su questioned.

"Somewhat, but they'll need more evidence since just looking at how they killed them isn't enough. After all, even killers are known to change their styles once in awhile. Hell, they could think that someone is messing with them, wanting them to believe that it's more than one just to throw off suspicion."

"You're really knowledgeable about this stuff, you know that?" Draco said, looking somewhat frightened by my knowledge. I shrugged.

"It comes from being raised by Muggles," I responded. "Anyway, now that we pretty much run the Wizengamott, I think we should think about certain laws that should be passed."

"I think that we should leave that to Narcissa," Ron said. Most of the group agreed with him. I glared at the redhead before snorting.

"Fine, whatever." He grinned before becoming serious.

"Hannah Abbott came up to me earlier on request by Ginny," he said. "She told me to tell you that Ginny wants to arrange a duel between our group and her group."

"Oh joy," I said blandly. "What did you say?"

"Sure." I glared at him. "What? It's not as if we can't beat them or anything. We know more and can do more than they can."

"But we're out of shape. Because of the stupid Inquisitorial Squad, we've been unable to train as often as we've wished. Hell, when was the last time we've been in the Chambers?" Ron shrugged. "Aw hell, it's not like we can back out of it now. There goes our studying. Where will we be having this duel?"

"Here Saturday night." I let out a breath through my nose. Saturday night. That was three days away. "That means that we have to start training," I continued, rubbing the bridge of my nose. I had an odd feeling in the back of my head that something bad was going to happen. Well, it was in the back of my head and the pit of my stomach. I felt as though I were forgetting something. Shaking my head, I took a breath and sighed. "Come on. Let's start training. We might as well get as much done as soon as possible. We don't want a bunch of amateurs defeating us." We began training, and I was stuck with the task of filling Hermione in on what everyone else had learned during the first half of the year.

Maybe if I had thought more about my bad feelings, I could have prevented what was to come next.


	8. Chapter 8

I stretched as I prepared my body for the coming duel between the DA and the DW. A soft pop gained my attention as Ron did his own stretches. As he bent over backwards to pop his back again, he flipped himself, achieving the desired result while landing on his feet. I rolled my eyes. Even as Ron, Ace could be such a show off. I was about to tell him off when I heard someone approaching me from behind. Turning, I saw that it was Hermione. I also saw that she was walking slowly, hesitantly, and appeared nervous.

"Harry, I'm not sure that I'm strong enough," she whispered, nervously fiddling with her wand. "I've only trained for a few weeks maybe. I don't think I will last that long in a fight against the DA. After all, since I've left, they've been tutored by several of professors. I might not be able to hold up much of a fight against them." I grasped Hermione by the shoulders and looked directly into her cinnamon brown eyes.

"Listen to me, Hermione," I told her. "We are probably going to be outnumbered, but you're a member of the pack. The pack sticks together, so don't worry about being strong. At least not now. We have each other's backs. Just try not to freeze up in the duel, okay? Don't freeze up. Ever." Hermione nodded frantically. I smiled at her. "But relax. I got your back. I won't let anything happen to you." Hermione grinned.

"Thanks, Harry," Hermione said.

"No problem. You should do a few stretches, though. Don't want you to cramp up." Hermione nodded and began stretching her arm muscles.

I left her and began going through battle plans in my mind. Once again, I'm stopped by the bad feeling I've been getting since I agreed with the duel. Why am I feeling like this? What was I missing that was so important?

"Harry, are you ready for the duel?" Daphne questioned. She smirked amusedly. "You're not nervous are you?" I frowned. Nervous I was not. Well, maybe a little. I was only human… Well, not exactly. You get the point. However, I've gone up against Voldemort. Why should I be nervous about fighting a bunch of kids?

"I'm not nervous, Daphne, though I should be asking you the same question," I responded, still pondering my bad feeling. "Are you nervous, Daphne?" The Slytherin girl looked taken aback. She must not have been expecting the question.

Daphne scoffed, though I didn't miss the blush and embarrassed look that passed over her features. She quickly replaced it with a haughty look and glared up at me. "I don't even know the meaning of the word," she snapped. I took a step back, holding my hands up.

"I wasn't trying to insult you, Daphne. I was just asking." Daphne calmed a little, but still looked somewhat ticked. I laughed nervously. "You should channel your anger into something more productive, like focusing for the duel." She glared at me before turning and walking away. I released the breath I was holding. That girl was scary sometimes.

As Daphne walked away, my attention returned to the bad feeling that was beginning to move from the pit of my stomach to my temples. A dull pounding was beginning to settle on those areas of my head. I walked around the main room of the Chambers, massaging my temples. I absentmindedly weaved in between members of my pack, ducking and dodging spells being fired with ease despite paying little to no attention to them. My headache was growing the closer I got to the doors of the Chambers. What was wrong with me?

Maybe I was just worried about the duel. After all, this was going to be the first duel between my pack and another group that was out for our blood. Considering that I'd rushed into it, I was right to be somewhat nervous. Hermione was new. I couldn't allow my pup to be harmed in any way.

Wait, had I just thought of Hermione as my pup? I paused at the Chamber doors. That was odd, because the only other term I could think of using for her was bloodling, and I'm positive that that didn't fit right with Hermione. That didn't matter, though. I turned around to gaze at my pack. Hermione was talking with Su and Luna about something or other. Su, Daphne, and Padma were battling Neville. Draco was doing stretches with Blaise, instructing him on how to position his body for maximum effect. Ron was talking with Fred about something, though the name Percy stuck out. Parvati was speaking with George and Astoria while looking over a spell book.

Gazing at my pack, I smiled softly to myself while massaging my aching temples. My pack was my family so it was only normal for me to care for them as if they were my family. As pack leader, as Alpha, was like the father figure. Ron, Neville, Draco, Fred, and George were like my brothers. Daphne, Su, Astoria, Luna, and the Patil twins were like my daughters with Hermione being my youngest. Yes, that's how it was. That felt right. Hermione was my pup only because she was young, fresh, innocent and oblivious as to the goals of the pack. I have yet to explain everything to her, and I wish to do so soon.

Smiling to myself, I turned from my pack, my family, and headed for the entrance. A voice shouted to me. I turned, and found Ron looking to me.

"Where are you going?" was the question he stated to me. I smiled.

"To the dorms. I just need to check on something," I responded, which was the truth. I'd finally pinpointed the possible reason for my growing headache, though I could not figure out the reason for my bad feeling. There was a possibility that someone had tried to break into either my or any of the other's trunks. Before I left, I turned back to the others and called out for Draco, motioning for him to come over to me.

"What is it, Takuya?" he asked when he came within a sizeable distance. I voiced my concerns with him. He nodded and adopted a pensive look. At that point, I was forced to admit that the boy was actually rather cute as Draco. Look suited him greatly.

"Now that I'm closer to the exit," he said, drawing me from my musing, "I do feel a slight ache at my temples, though that could mean that someone tampered with my trunk but couldn't get it to open." I nodded.

"If it had been opened, the spells would have alerted us immediately instead of just torturing us like this. I was planning to check the others and mine. Since you're in another house, I couldn't check yours." Draco nodded as he knew where I was going with this.

"Let's go before whoever it is figures out how to open them," he said. "I already have enough trouble staying alive on a day to day basis. I'd have the entire school after my ass if they found out what was in my trunk." I arched an eyebrow in question.

"If they'll react like that, what _is _in your trunk?" Draco smirked and left the room, completely ignoring my question or rather, just not bothering to answer it. We travelled from Myrtle's bathroom to the main hall before separating to go to our intended destinations.

As I got closer and closer to the Gryffindor tower, my mild aching temples erupted into a full blown headache. Once more rubbing my temples in an attempt to suppress the pain, I continued forward only freeze abruptly as my bad feeling turned from a feeling in the pit of my stomach to a cold numbness that spread across my body. Shaking, I began to walk again, only this time, my destination was an alcove nearby. Entering it, I spelled the area before sliding down the warm stone wall and hugging my knees to my chest. What the hell was wrong with me?

I sat that, waiting for the cold numb feeling to disappear only for it to get worse. As I sat there shaking, I could only wonder what was happening to me. My question was somewhat answered when my vision faded into black.

I was blind for a good minute before my sight returned. Only it wasn't my sight. I was instantly reminded of my vision during that Divination class where I had first seen Naruto. That reminded me of what Salazar had told me earlier in the year, about how vampires had originally been able to see into the future. This brought me back to the present as I watched the scene unfold before my eyes.

* * *

_ Umbridge paced around the Room of Requirements with several Ministry officials, including Cornelius Fudge, waiting behind her. Her ugly face was twisted with annoyance. She glared at the group of students before her. Ginevra Weasley was beginning to get nervous underneath the woman's gaze, though did well to hide it. She was just as annoyed as her, though. Where could Potter be? He was late for their "duel."_

_ Cho Chang sat in a seat conjured by the room, watching as the woman she loathed but manipulated with ease continued to pace in anger. She too was worried about Potter's lateness. They'd planned this to the T and there was no way possible for him to have realized that this was a trap unless he was smart enough to think up said possibility on his own. Cho, however, knew that the boy was a lying, attention seeking fool, and in turn, knew that he would never think up such a possibility._

_ Umbridge finally stopped pacing and turned her full gaze to the students that made up the head of the DA and their Inner Circle. "Where is he?" she hissed. "You told me that he had agreed to this duel. Now where is he?" Cho shrugged nonchalantly._

_ "He'll come," she said, calmly. "He's probably trying to pull the Weasley boy out from under whatever rock he crawled under. You know he's a wimp." Ginny snorted in amusement._

_ "He's afraid of his own shadow," she laughed. "Potter is probably afraid that we're going to beat his silly little group."_

_ "I don't know," Dean mumbled from the book case he was leaning against. "I saw what was left after he went on his rampage. I'm not sure he'll be afraid of beating us. If he could do _that _to the school, I wonder what he could to us." He shivered at the thought._

_ Ginny leveled a glare at him, which he was forced to turn away from. "Are you really afraid of something like that? It was a fluke! McGonagall and Snape helped create that mess just to make it seem as though he did it. They want to make the Boy-Who-Lived look as powerful as possible." Dean frowned._

_ "I doubt it," he mumbled. "However, that doesn't mean that I don't think that he deserves to have his magic sealed. He is a menace and a danger." Cho nodded._

_ "Not only that, but getting rid of him weakens Dumbledore," she stated, her knowledge of politics coming into play. She turned to Umbridge. "He'll be here. His dignity and pride is on the line. After all, this is a duel to see whose group is stronger." Umbridge glared at the girl before nodding curtly._

_ "He'd better."_

* * *

I blinked as I found myself staring at the stone wall before me. The cold numbness was gone from my limbs, and I could move freely now. I continued to stare at the wall for a good minute before standing. Dropping all of the spells around the alcove, I broke into a dead sprint towards the Gryffindor tower, clutching my pendant as I did.

_Draco! Draco! Emergency! Emergency! It's a trap. The duel is a trap. Grab everything important. We need to leave now!_

I didn't wait for his response. Upon arriving at the portrait of the Fat Lady, I almost shouted the password before bounding through the opening. Rushing into the dorms, I darted through the boys who were preparing for bed, ignoring their insults and snide remarks as I shrunk my trunk along with Neville's, Ron's, and the twin's, shoving them into my pocket before rushing out of the dorm.

As I ran back to the Chambers, my heart was pounding in my chest. I was such an idiot! How could I have not realized that it was a trap? My persistent bad feeling had been trying to warn me for so long, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what the cause it could have been. What it could have meant. I was such an idiot! It was so obvious now that I thought about it. The sudden request for a duel against a group led by two women who hated me and were on good terms with Umbridge should have alerted me immediately. I should have known something was wrong, but instead, I almost led my group into a trap. I was such a fool.

I was so deeply submerged within my thoughts that I collided against someone. With a loud "oomph", I bounced of the unknown person and onto the floor. Rubbing my sore bum, I almost missed the person state, "Merlin, Potter, do you ever watch where you're going?" I looked up and glared at Draco. Standing up, I helped him to his feet before checking my inventory. Relieved at having lost none of the trunks in my possession, I turned back to Draco.

"I'm such an idiot," was what I blurted out. Draco shook his head.

"Yes, you are, but you couldn't have known," he replied. I shook my head, disagreeing with him.

"I should have been at least a little suspicious!"

"You just recovered from a highly dangerous illness that you have yet to explain." I glared at him and opened my mouth to reply before stopping upon hearing a door creak open. I shoved Draco into an empty classroom and shut the door, leaving only a crack.

"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed. I shushed him and grabbed my pendant.

_Someone was coming!_

Draco grew silent as we stared out of the crack of the door. Ginny exited the Room and stood in the hallway. She glanced about before scowling. "He's still not here yet with his stupid group," she mumbled. Her lips curled into a frown. "I doubt he's figured out our plan. He's not that smart, nor does he have that many followers. After what happened last year, not many people trust him, right, Cho?" I watched as Cho came up beside Ginny, nodding as she did.

"Everyone believes that he's just seeking attention," she responded calmly. "Everyone knows that he killed Cedric to get the trophy and only blamed it on Voldemort so that he wouldn't have to be charged. It's common sense." She turned to Ginny and smiled. "It doesn't matter, anyway. Without Dumbledore here to back him up and protect him, the Golden Boy shall fall from grace, just as he deserves." Ginny nodded, crossing her arms underneath her chest.

"He'd better show up, or I'm going to go looking for him," she mumbled. Cho shook her head. She seemed amused by her partner's antics.

"Have you any idea of where his group might be training at?"

Ginny shrugged. "From what I can tell and from what students have reported, he might be taking them to the Chambers. He's the only one with any real access to it. That might be their safe haven. It makes sense, though. He must feel so much closer to Tom when he's down there."

I've never wanted to hit a girl so badly in my life. How dare she say such a thing? If we weren't trying to get away and stay hidden, I would have showed her just how much I'd learned.

Anger fueling me and clouding my senses, I missed the person sneaking up behind me. Something pricked me in the back of my neck. I swung around and found myself gazing up at Seamus. My hand instantly went to the back of my neck. Draco growled beside me, but it was drowned out by nothingness as my senses began to disintegrate. I blinked owlishly, falling back onto my butt.

"You poisoned me," I whispered, my words coming out slow and dumb as my tongue went numb. Draco was up and in Seamus's face in record time. He pushed the other boy against a cabinet, effectively breaking the glass and possibly stabbing the Scott with it. He also brought the attention of a certain pair of girls.

"What did you do to him?" he shouted. His voice was far away and sounded muffled to my ears. Whatever Seamus had injected me with was making me lethargic. I felt so tired. Just keeping my eyes open was a hard task. My arm dropped to my side, my muscles weak and failing. I was slowly losing the use of my motor skills.

Thinking was becoming so hard for me. Thinking… hard. Me. Me, such a simple word. I'm me. Aren't I me? Who am I? My, this is rather funny. If only I could giggle, I would.

Muffled, far away clicking met my deadening ears. I slowly turned around to see a woman who looked suspiciously like a pig looking down at me with a smug expression. For some reason, I wanted to smile at her. That expression disappeared suddenly as something blocked her from my view. I wonder who that lady was. I wonder who was in front of me.

The world suddenly fell away beneath me. I was floating now, being carried away from the woman and out of the darkness. My, it's bright. Light is annoying. I love darkness, and the darkness loves me. I wanted to giggle, and this time I did. I closed my eyes against the brightness, and fell away from the conscious world.

* * *

I faded in and out of consciousness. Momentary flashes of light blinded my delicate eyes. Faces blurred together to the point where I couldn't decipher one from another. First, I was in someone's arms. Then, I was lying on the floor. Again, someone's arms. Again, on the floor. I'm not sure where I am. Where are they taking me? Who has me? Light again, so blinding. I thank the darkness from which I was birthed for that is where I fade. It takes me again, and I am once again floating in the realm of dreams. If you could even call them that.

**

* * *

**

This chapter was kind of dull and so was the ending. Oh well, I tried and am still trying. Please enjoy. Check out my Twitter page for updates if you don't have this story alerted. There is a link on my profile page.


	9. Chapter 9

"The day of reckoning has arrived, I see," an elderly female voice echoed in the darkness. She chuckled. "I suppose it was to be expected. After all, he has grown powerful, whether he knows it or not. What do you think?"

"Yes, he is quite powerful," a deep male voice replied thoughtfully. "He is half vampire and half werewolf. He does not suffer from the afflictions both species suffer from, but then, that is most likely due to his parentage. His father was a Phase Wolf and his mother was a Daywalker."

"Yes, that seems to be case," a new voice stated. Hers was young, but mature, as though she had seen the world's creation. "Haruo was able to shift at will. Not only that, but full moons and lunar eclipses made him stronger, though only temporarily. He was immune to silver like his ancestors. The weaknesses of the past generations had been overpowered."

"Izayoi was powerful, too," the elderly woman continued. "She wasn't affected by the sun's rays. Water didn't bother her. A wooden stake wasn't even hard enough to pierce her diamond hard skin. She was invincible."

"Yes, which is why her kind, as well as Haruo's, were shipped off into a new dimension," the male said. "Keeping the humans alive is our main priority. It is impossible to do so with such powerful creatures residing amongst them."

"That has worked little, has it not?" the elderly woman questioned. "There son is here, isn't he? They must have a way to leave their realm."

"They are able to use magic, just like the wizards. For what reason, I am not sure. Such an ability should be taken from them."

"We are not here to argue about the vampires and werewolves, might I remind you," the young woman interrupted. "Takuya's parentage has led to him being immune to all weaknesses of either species. As such, he is a very powerful young being. Not only that, but the darkness has accepted him as their god."

"He is too powerful," the man said. "Such power shall cause an imbalance in the world."

"I agree," the elderly woman responded. "We were placed to help keep a balance. He is disrupting it. Something must be taken in order for that balance to be achieved again."

"And exactly what sort of balance are you trying to attain, Cyprus, Elder?" the young woman questioned. "The world is already imbalanced. Humans have taken over the Earth, nearly exterminating the wizarding population and forcing them into hiding and seclusion. Do you call that a balance? A dark lord is hell bent on taking over the magical world. Is he part of the balance as well?"

"We obtain a balance of power for the humans," Elder replied slowly. "The humans are the most important species on the planet. They are fragile, powerless. They depend upon ingenuity and slow growing knowledge to remain afloat in the world. They do not have enhanced physical strength, magical abilities, nor do they have extended life-lines. They deserve a world that is completely their own."

"So you will just allow another species to kill itself off?" the young woman argued, though her voice never rising above normal speaking level. "Do you not care for the other races that live amongst the humans?"

"The same races that are slowly killing off the human race, one person at a time?" Cyprus questioned, his voice hard. "They have their own realms to live within, but their always return to Earth to hunt humans. The other races only see them as their next meals."

"So you do plan to allow the wizards to exterminate each other, don't you?" young woman questioned. "What you two are doing isn't called keeping a balance. It is called being biased."

"We were created to watch over the humans and to do what was necessary in times of great strife," the Elder said.

"Yes, but who created the first human?" the young woman questioned.

"You, Kami."

"Yes, and as such, I have just as much say as to what happens on Earth as you two fools do." She was quiet for a moment. "I believe that you two have survived your purpose. You have lived long enough. Now it is time for you to pass over."

"But, Kami, we were only doing as you instructed!" Elder argued.

"We have done nothing wrong?" Cyprus shouted.

"Warping my instructions is the crime you are both guilty of," Kami replied. "Your existence is no longer needed."

Cyprus and Elder tried in vain to argue their case. However, their pleas slowly grew softer and softer as though they were getting farther and farther away. The pleas stopped altogether, and all was silent.

A chuckle broke the silence. "They served their purposes, though they became warped as time went by," a male voice, softer than Cyprus's, said amusedly. "It has been awhile since it was just us, no?"

"I never knew to be such a flirt, Yahweh," Kami responded calmly. "All playfulness aside, we still have much to talk about. Takuya is disrupting the natural balance of power."

"Voldemort disrupted it long before Takuya even came into being," Yahweh responded. "However, Takuya's heritage as well as pending status as the god over all shadows and darkness has caused the balance to shift tremendously. He is, all things considering, _too _powerful. I am beginning to fear him myself. What do you propose?"

"Some of his powers should be taken from him," Kami responded immediately. "His abilities are too great and there are too many people helping him at such an early stage in life."

"I agree, though I do feel guilty about doing such a thing to him," Yahweh confessed. "What should be taken?"

"You enjoy making me do all of the work, don't you?"

"Of course not. I'll start the list then. His cores are far too active for my liking, don't you agree? I suggest taking away their consciousness. Magic may be alive, but it should not be revealing itself to its user in such a manner, no?"

"I suppose. That is a reasonable."

"Also his psychic ability. It's too much, don't you agree? I can understand if he had a seer on his side, but being a seer and battle mage is just too much."

"Yes, I agree with that. His ability to see into the future was never supposed to be awakened. That shall be removed. However, his ability to… dream walk, I supposed, and communicate with the long since dead shall remain with him."

"Hmm," Yahweh hummed, thinking quietly to himself. "I do believe we have achieved a balance."

"How exactly have we done so? I suggest we remove his ability to do necromancy."

"Raising the dead? I suppose that would be an overkill, too. I wasn't even aware he had such a gift."

"Of course not," Kami said, sounding satisfied with herself. "Some of his abilities haven't even awakened yet. That was one of them. Have we achieved a balance yet?" Yahweh chuckled.

"Yes, I do believe so." There was silence.

"Do you think that he should be subjected to the same weaknesses as others of his species?" Kami questioned softly. Yahweh sighed.

"No. That would be a definite overkill. His own weaknesses will be revealed as his powers and abilities are. You know this. You created him, no?"

"No. I didn't create him. If I recall, Yahweh, you did. He is the only inhuman you've ever created. Why is that?" If only she could see his smile, but it was far too dark for them to see anything. They just sensed each other's presence and heard each other's voices.

"He's special, Kami," Yahweh whispered. Kami could almost picture that loving smile on his face. "Plus, why should you have all the fun?"

* * *

**I know, short chapter, but it was a quickie. This might be my post of the year (school year) if my mom is as evil as I believe she is. I'll try to post as often as I can, but its difficult because I hate the school computers. (Keyboards are too damn big!) I'll try. Follow me on Twitter for quick updates.**


	10. Chapter 10

I hate author notes. I hate them with a passion, but this one is extremely necessary. Here we go.

I recall a time when I stated in a chapter that I wanted to rewrite either The Light or Submerged because I was suffering from writer's block. That was probably Submerged. Well, you guys convinced me not to...at that time. Now, I've reread both the Light and Submerged, I've skimmed through stories I'm writing now, and I've realized that neither stories reach my standards. I know. I'm sad, too. I really, _really _don't want to rewrite that entire story. Like, OMG. I've typed the Light over like several hundred times. If I have to write the beginning chapter _one more time _I will scream. So I'm not going to write it like that. I'm changing the beginning. Stories where Harry finds out his inheritance at Gringotts are so...cliche. So yeah. I'm going to rewrite it. My computer is kinda functional so I will just use it to rewrite the story over Christmas break.

I know. I know. You guys are going to be like "Why are you rewriting it? It's perfect." Yeah, not to me. That's probably because I've been reading more stories that are like blow your mind good. Maybe that's it. But I need to do this. Originally, I wrote this story because I just wanted to see my idea come to life, and that's what I still want. I really wanted to finish it as soon as possible, but after looking it over and seeing the mistakes, and ugh! It's frustrating!

The thing I hate the most is that I spent two years trying to rewrite it from its original, horrible beginning. No, it's not the version I wrote before The Light. That one was a rewrite, too. Don't ask me to send it to you, either. I deleted that. Anyway, it took me two years just to squeeze out the Light of the Darkness. I had a hundred and eighty-nine pages written out before I realized that I couldn't complete that one either! And then, out of the blue, I decided to rewrite it, and out popped The Light and Submerged. If I have to type the first chapter of The Light one more time, I **will **scream.

So I said screw it with the whole "He goes to Gringotts and finds out all this crap" and decided to go at it from a different direction. This will take some time to plan out. I know how it starts and will keep going from there. I'll try to continue Submerged, but I might not finish it.

I know many of you hate me right now, but it was bound to happen, anyway. The Light was unorganized, Takuya/Harry was way too powerful to begin with, not enough emotion was put into the story, and it was just a little bit too random for my tastes. I need to get a beta reader. If any of you wish to become my beta reader, I'd love you forever. You'd be the greatest thing to enter my life since music.

Thank you all for reading this note. Don't give up on me. I will make this work. I hope you will read the newest story that has yet to be titled and the latest chapter of Submerged which I am finishing. Thanks for you support.


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